
Class 15 S)4 -l£. 

Book * S 5 

Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE NEW BOOK 
OF JOB 



BY 



H. P. SHOVE, M. D 

(All rights reserved) 



Published by 

THE CO-OPERATIVE PUBLISHING CO. 
EAST SAINT LOUIS, ILLINOIS 






PROEMIAL. 

(Sent Forth.) 

Born of my prayers, and baptized with my tears, 
Go forth, little book, on the flood of the years. 

Thy covers be wings that shall bear thee away 
O'er the world of wide waters, my dove of To-Day. 

Fly far o'er the rocks where the sirens of praise 
Sit sunning their locks, and uplifting their lays. 

Fear not the fierce eagles that swoop from the skies — 
Strike at thee, tear at thee, screaming their lies. 

But o'er the rude waves of the wide-rolling deep. 
To ships that are lost, let thy swift pinions sweep. 

To lost ships of all seas bear the leaves of my love ; 
Then, O bird of my bosom ! O wing-wearied dove ! 

Come back to thine ark 'ere it, sinking, shall cease — 
O'er the flood of gray years with the green leaf of Peace. 




DEC 14 1915 



11 



CI.A420122 
OtC I 




H. P. Shove, M. D 



Preface 



As a star of the first magnitude, and of the softest 
and purest ray serene, the book of Job stands at the 
zenith of the literary firmament of all time. There, and 
from thence, it overshines the glow-worm world of mod- 
ern poetics as far as it excels the brightest in the gal- 
axy of antiquity. 

At the least, there is a consensus of opinion among 
those best qualified to judge of such matters, that of all 
the great literary works of old which have been pre- 
served to us of the present day, Job is the greatest. 
"Nothing, I think," says Carlyle, "of equal literary merit 
has ever been written — so soft and great, like the summer 
midnight with its stars and suns." 

And Froude, the English historian and critic, says in 
one of his six short lessons on six great subjects, Job 
beino- one of them: "It is a work of which it is to sav 
little to call it unequalled of its kind. And some day, 
perhaps, when it is allowed to stand on its own merits, it 
will be seen towering up and alone, far above all poetry 
of the world." 

It is also a canon of literary criticism that no really 

iv 



great work in its department ever is,, or can be, imme- 
diately and fully apprehended. For a full and clear 
apprehension of such a work the judgment of posterity, 
and the verdict of Time are necessary ; and for these the 
world must wait. We may take in the dimensions of 
a mole-hill standing close by it ; but we must go back 
from the base of a lofty mountain to a distance in space 
proportionate to the bigness of the mountain before we 
can take in all its own and its relative proportions. It 
is so with a great book ; the world must wait until it has 
retired to a distance in time commensurate with the 
greatness of that book before it can even begin rightly to 
apprehend it. 

Tried by this test alone, Job should still be the 
greatest of books ; for, being, as it is, one of the oldest 
books in the world today, it is yet the least rightly 
understood of them all. And it is so; Job is the Mont 
Blanc of the Bible, the monarch of all its literary moun- 
tains. The ancients never made anything like a sys- 
tematic survey of its stupendous sides, and the moderns 
are no nearer its summit than they. Indeed, modern 
scholarship and criticism, hard, literal, and mechanical 
in their spirit and method alike, have proven themselves 
a thousand times over wholly incompetent to deal suc- 
cessfully with the problems of this great, simple, divine 
book- — so anciently written, and in a style, and by a 
method, the art and science of which have for ages been 
lost to the world. 

The only correct apprehension of even the general 
and fundamental character of the work ever had, either 
anciently or modernly, was that of Ezra, the Jewish 
Priest, and author of one of the books of the Bible. 
After the return of his people from the captivity of 
Babylon, about 538 B. C, Ezra made a new classifica- 
tion of the sacred scriptures then in their possession, 
and, presumably, after as careful and conscientious a 
study of the subject as he was capable of giving it, 



placed Job among the prophets, where it had always 
rightfully belonged. This golden glimpse of the truth 
of the whole matter was speedily swallowed up and 
lost in the general darkness of the time, which was very 
great ; and the successors in office to the noble, and, so 
far, illumined priest, soon miscorrected his true classifi- 
cation of the book, and placed it back among the 
hagiographa.. or simply sacred writings, without farther 
definition of their special function or scope. There the 
book remains to this day — "an exquisite gem in the 
casket of revelation, engraved with symbolical characters 
throughout, and with nothing literal thereon to mar the 
consistency of its beauty." No, it is added, nor to in- 
terrupt or confuse its orderly and consecutive interpre- 
tation from beginning to end on purely symbolical 
grounds. This fine bit of eulogy was written by its 
author for the Song of Solomon — than which nothing 
more beautiful was ever sung or said ; but it also ap- 
plies so perfectly and admirably to this greater song 
than Solomon's, that the temptation to quote and so 
apply it is irresistible. 

For Job is a great and flawless gem in the casket of 
revelation, although as yet mainly unrevealed. It is 
engraved with symbolical characters throughout, and 
there is nothing whatever of a literal kind or character 
upon it or within it. It is purely prophetical in its char- 
acter, and strictly symbolical its method. 

But now the reason why the author of the book of 
Ezra could say no more of Job than "It is prophecy of 
some kind," is not far to seek nor hard to find. It was 
Messianic prophecy — the first event in the fulfillment 
of which was yet to be, as it has since become, the ad- 
vent of the Christ, as its foreshadowed Messiah. This 
event lay yet more than five centuries forward of that 
time ; there was, therefore, nothing whatever in the 
world of actual and historic events to correspond to or 
with the types and shadows of the typical and pro- 



VI 



phetical story; neither would there be any such during 
all of this long intervening period of time. 

And it is in this circumstance that we find the ex- 
planation of the reason why the book of Job must 
necessarily remain a sealed book to all, from the date of 
its composition down to the time of the coming of him 
of whom, and of his work in the world, it is air testi- 
mony. Then, and not until then, the typical and shad- 
owy characters and events of the story would first begin 
to clothe and incarnate themselves, as it were, in the 
flesh and blood of actual and living history. 

Then, after _the first great event of the prophetical 
story had taken place in the advent of Christ, the world 
must still wait until a majority of the events foreshad- 
owed therein had occurred, before anything like a com- 
plete chain of historic correspondences thereto could be 
constructed from the beginning to the end thereof. 

Meanwhile, it was inevitable that many curious and 
mostly erroneous speculations should be made on the 
subject matter of the book by the wise and learned — all 
based, as they have been, on one fundamental and al- 
ways fatal error, that of assuming the historic verity of 
the work to begin with, and then treating it on that false 
hypothesis. Nothing but error could possibly result 
from this. They have read this great representative 
piece of work much as school children read their text 
books at first, taking that literally which is figurative 
or representative. 

They believe, or profess to believe, that there Avas 
a man in the land of Uz by the name of Job ; that he had 
seven sons and three daughters, a vast herd of sheep and 
cattle, and was the head of a very great household, 
simply for the school boy reason that it says so in the 
book. At the same time, they find it very convenient, 
for themselves,, to practically ignore the fact that the 
numbers of his sons and daughters, together with those 
of all of his flocks and herds of domestic animals, and 

vii 



of his friends who come to comfort him of the great 
calamities which afterward befall him, are all of them 
well known symbolical numbers of the Bible. This 
symbolical enumeration of things runs quite through 
the entire work ; yet these professors of Bible exegesis 
accept them all as literal numbers, knowing that they 
are not so, simply because they know not what to do 
with them as symbolical numbers. 

But when it comes to the going forth of Satan from 
the presence of the Lord, and smiting Job with sore 
boils from sole to crown, then perforce they own, very 
unwillingly, that something of the supernatural is indi- 
cated ; this, they say, must be a symbolical act of some 
kind or other, still sticking- for the literal, real person 
of Job. So Satan smote a literal body with symbolical 
sores — a feat of Satanic skill and ingenuity which could 
be parallelled only by sowing literal sores on a sym- 
bolical body. And this is the sort of thing throughout, 
so far as Job is concerned, which they call "critical and 
expository" comment. Aside from much interesting 
and valuable information on side issues, there is noth- 
ing better than this in any of the standard commentaries 
on Job, when it comes to elucidation of the text proper, 
so that one is constrained to think that it is among 
those things of which Jesus said they are hidden from 
the wise and prudent, and revealed only to babes. 

And now, after many years of that search of the 
scriptures which Jesus enjoined upon us, saying, as he 
said, that they testify of him, it is confidently asserted 
by the writer hereof that the book of Job is a book of one 
single, sole, and divine idea, and is of a method of con- 
struction as single, sole, and divine as its idea. That idea 
is the Messianic Idea — the most simple, natural, and 
divine of all ideas. And that method is the method of 
Spiritual-Natural Correspondence — the most natural, 
simple, and divine of all methods of construction, 
whether it may be of a book or a universe. 



vm 



In this wonderful piece of work which we call the 
Book of Job, each and every named and described form 
of man, or bird, or beast, whether great or small, is a 
chosen form and name of some divine idea of its author 
and inspirer, who is God. Every related or described 
fact, event, or phenomenon, is the same. And none of 
these persons, events, and phenomena ever had exist- 
ence or occurred in the world of reality, as related and 
described. But all and singular are chosen and con- 
structed names and forms designed to be representa- 
tive of real persons, real events, facts and phenomena 
of the future, yet to be embodied and realized in the 
Messianic age and the records of Christian history. 
Hence any and all criticism of this ancient piece of 
Messianic prophecy which shall be worthy the name, 
must necessarily resolve itself, first, into a search for the 
discovery of the whole divine idea of it all. Then, for 
the meaning and purpose of all its many and several 
parts, their relation to each other, and to the whole work. 
The clue to the first, last, and final meaning of it all, is 
in that saying of the Christ — that the scriptures are they 
that testify of Him. This clue, well followed out, soon 
leads to the discoverv that the whole meanino" of the 
work is Messianic, that it relates to the Christ, yet to 
come, and to His Avork in the world. Then, what re- 
mains is to ascertain how and in what way it testifies 
of Him. Only, as says M. Antoninus, "Take care that 
thou makest the inquiry by a sure method." Both a 
safe and sound governing principle of interpretaion to 
begin with,, then a sure method of application also, are 
indispensably necessary to a successful search of this 
oldest and most mysterious book of the Bible. 

With these to gxwern-, guide and direct, the book of 
Job, from the most mysterious and difficult of books, 
becomes the simplest book ever written, the easiest book 
ever read, to read and understand aright. It is simply 



IX 



a foretold story of the Christ, in the form of a story of 
a patriarch of the olden time, to whom is given the name 
of Job. This, first of all ; then, of its many seemingly 
great and marvellous events and phenomena, all are but 
so many invented and constructed correspondences to 
the leading events and phenomena of what rs now Chris- 
tian history. All of the great institutions, enterprises 
and inventions of To-Day, including in the term the 
Christian Era, and as affecting Christian civilization, are 
predicted and foreshadowed under the most apt and ex- 
cellent images conceivable, in this great, simple, sub- 
lime book of Messianic prophecy. And this, in no hap- 
hazard way or manner, but systematically and in the 
regular order of occurrence of the events foreshadowed, 
and so consecutively and continuously as to leave no 
room for the charge of mere coincidence which might be 
made in the case of an isolated correspondence here and 
there. There is, too evidently for this, a thoroughly cor- 
related system of types and shadows of things to come, 
which constitute the work a divine science of Represent- 
atives, or "Correspondences, as Avell as the greatest poem 
ever written, and the greatest prophecy ever penned. 

Finally, it is related that a company of seekers after 
curiosities in some of the secluded corners of the old and 
remote East have lately discovered there certain house or 
temple lamps of a very quaint and curious design. These 
lamps consist of a central jet, or ring of jets, which is 
surrounded by a bowl of some transparent material. This 
bowl, or globe, is covered with symbolical figures of some 
kind over its outer surface. These characters cannot be 
traced in any light outside of the bowl, but appear as a 
confused cloud upon its surface, having no intelligible 
meaning or design. 

But once let the lamp be filled and lighted within, 
and instantly all of these obscure characters come out in 
clear and beautiful relief, and can now be traced out and 
deciphered as to their purport and design. Such a piece 



of work, in its way, is this old book — beautiful and won- 
derful of all the world of books,, and which is called THE 
BOOK OF JOB, and is the Book of Jesus, the Christ in 
its chosen form and guise. It is a spherical work in the 
all around fullness and compass of its object and scope, 
which are to set forth the character and mission of the 
Christ to come, and also to give a panoramic view of the 
leading events and institutions of the Messianic age, or 
the Christian era. It is therefore, and necessarily, en- 
graved with symbolical characters throughout which 
necessarily contain an immensity of meaning within a 
wonderfully small space ; for a work of such breadth and 
compass as this, to have been composed by any other 
method than that of a series of powerfully compacted 
formulas with much in a little for each and every one of 
them, would have required a book larger than all the 
books of the Bible in one book. 

Then again, these symbolical characters, of which 
this work is wholly made up, cannot be deciphered in any 
merely outward light of learning' and scholarship ; as wit- 
ness the many commentaries written by the learned and 
wise in the wisdom of the world, upon it, the book, and 
all of them leaving it where they found it, in as deep and 
profound a mystery as ever before. But let it be lighted 
up by the indwelling, divine and Messianic idea of it all, 
and these hitherto mysterious and unintelligible charac- 
ters are all filled with that inner light, and become easily 
intelligible to even the most ordinary understanding. 
And henceforth it is only a question of patient and con- 
tinued search, in the light of that all-illumining idea, 
and by the sure method of correspondence, when every 
one of even the wise and learned, if they will, may solve 
all of the deep and dark problems of this, once the most 
mysterious of books. 

Meanwhile, in view of all their many frantic and al- 
ways futile efforts so to do, we are constrained to cry 
with Scotland's brightest bard : 



XI 



"What's a' the learning o' your schools? 
Your Hebrew names for horns an' stools? 
What, Sirs, your grammars? 
Ye'd better ta'en up spades and shools, 
And knappin' hammers." 

This is not for airy depreciation of the value of 
learning, as an aid to the teaching of the Spirit of Truth, 
but only as a substitute therefor, and as the main reli- 
ance for the search of the scriptures. And now, stand- 
ing as it were, on the earth below, and gazing upward to 
where this ancient and heaven-swung lamp of Messianic 
prophecy has hung for ages, shedding its pure and hal- 
lowed light down on a long unwitting world, one might 
no better voice his aspirations thitherward for further 
and fuller light therefrom, than in the quaintly worded 
prayer of pious old Herrick : 

"Oh, that I might find how thy lights combine, 
And the configurations of their glorie— - 
Not only how each verse doth shine, -- 
But all the constellations of the storie." 



Xll 



Index 



Page 
Chapter I. 
Origin and Authorship of the Work Humanly Considered. 1 

Chapter II. 
The Literary Form and Excellence of the Work '. 9 

Chapter III. 
Correspondences — What They Are and How Applied.... 15 

Chapter IV. 
The Patriarch Job 21 

Chapter V. 
The Sons and Daughters of Job— Symbolical Offspring of 

a Symbolical Sire 32 

Chapter VI. 
The Flocks and Herds of Job — A Messianic Service Table 49 

The Sheep of Job — Sheep of the Shepherd of Men 49 

The Camels of Job 1 — Camels of the Caravan of Christ. ... 51 

The Oxen of Job — Yoke Fellows in Christ 54 

The She Asses of Job — Gross Burden Bearers of the Lord ?6 

Chapter VII. 
The Sons of God — Offspring of Christ 61 



>TM 



Chapter VIII. 

The Satan of the Drama — A Personification of Evil 65 

Second Advent of Satan ' 72 



Xlll 



Chapter IX. 
The Lord of the Drama — Divine Providence Dramatized. 75 

Chapter X. 
The Taking Away of the Substance of Job — The Destruc- 
tion of the Church : 83 

Chapter XL 
The Second Advent of Satan — The Era of the Inquisition 92 
The Inquisition, or "Holy Office" 101 

Chapter XII. 
The Wife of Job— The Church in Apostacy 105 

Chapter XIII. 
The Three Friends of Job — "Forgers of Lies and Physi- 
cians of No Value" 115 

Chapter XIV. 
The Lamentations of Job. (Job iii.) 123 

Chapter XV. 
Eliphaz Answers Job. (Job iv.) 132 

Chapter XVI. 
Job Answers Eliphaz, (Job vi.) 138 

Chapter XVII. 
Bildad Answers. (Job viii.) 149 

Chapter XVIII. 
Job Replies. (Job ix.) - 153 

Chapter XIX. 
Zophar Answers. (Job xi.) 158 

Chapter XX. 
Job Answers Zophar. (Job xii.) 161 

Chapter XXI. 
Eliphaz Replies 175 



xiv 



Chapter XXII. 
Job Appealeth From Men to God. (Job xvii.) 185 

Chapter XXIII. 
Bildad Answers Job. (Job xviii.) 195 

Chapter XXIV. 
Job Replies to Bildad. (Job xix.) 201 

Chapter XXV. 
Zophar's Answer. (Job xx.) 215 

Chapter XXVI. 
Job Answers Zophar. (Job. xxi.) 218 

Chapter XXVII. 
Eliphaz Answers. (Job xxii.) ,.222 

Chapter XXVIII. 
Job Speaks of Himself. (Job xxiii.) 231 

Chapter XXIX. 
Christ's Doctrine of a Future Judgment. (Job xxiv.)...237 

Chapter XXX. 
Bildad Answers. (Job xxv.) 239 

Chapter XXXI. 
Job's Answer. (Job xxvi.) 241 

Chapter XXXII. 
Job Protests His Integrity. (Job xxvii.) 243 

Chapter XXXIII. 
Wisdom and Wealth Contrasted. (Job xxviii.) 252 

Chapter XXXIV. 
Job Reviews His Life. (Job xxix.) 256 

Chapter XXXV. 
The Obverse of the Shield. (Job xxx.) 266 



XV 



Chapter XXXVI. 

Job's Life Reviewed and His Message Finished. (Job 

xxxi.) 280 

Chapter XXXVII. 
Elihu Takes the Stage. (Job xxxii.) 299 

Chapter XXXVIII. 
Elihu Begins His Spech. (Job xxxiii.) 317 

Chapter XXXIX. 
Elihu Continues His Speech. (Job xxxiv.) 320 

Chapter XL. 
Elihu Continues His Parable. (Job xxxv.) 329 

Chapter XLI. 
Elihu Proceeds. (Job xxxvi.) 331 

Chapter XLII. 
Elihu Concludes His Discourse. (Job xxxvii.) 344 

Chapter XLIII. 
( The Whirlwind. (Job xxxviii.) 368 

Chapter XLIV. 
The Whirlwind, Continued, With Representative Figures 

From Animal Kingdom. (Job xxxix.) 418 

The Unicorn 436 

Of the Peacocks, and the Ostrich 443 

Of the Horse .447 

Chapter XLV. 
The Whirlwind, Continued, With Representative Figures 

From Animal Kingdom. (Job xl.) 462 

Chapter XLVI. 
The Whirlwind Finished, With Description of the Levia- 
than. (Job xli.) 484 

Chapter XLVIL 
The Epilogue. (Job xlii.) 523 

xvi 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

CHAPTER I. 

ORIGIN AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE WORK 
HUMANLY CONSIDERED. 

"Whence are thy beams, O sun, 
Through whom thy everlasting light." — Ossian. 

Although the question, Who wrote the Book of Job ? 
must always remain of secondary importance to the 
question, Who can interpret it? or What does it mean? 
still, the former is a question which can never lose its 
fascination to the admirers and lovers of this old book, 
beautiful and wonderful of all the world. And could we 
know when, where, under what circumstances, and espe- 
cially by whom, it was written, each and every smallest 
item of such information would be a pearl of knowl- 
edge, and above all price. 

But these are all things that are hidden from our 
ken in the mists of a now far removed period of time; 
and each succeeding day only adds to the probability 
that we shall never know them in time. But this we 
know : that as men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor 
figs of thistles, neither does God. We may then judge 
the tree by its fruits ; or somewhat of the workman 



2 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

by his work. What that is, among books, that he was 
among the writers of books, far and away the greatest 
of them all. 

The questions as to the personality of the author of 
Job, and of his nativity, have been very learnedly and 
ably discussed by the schoolmen ; on the first question, 
ranging from Moses to Ezra, with numerous other 
names between these two, leaving Moses where his ad- 
vocates found him, in the lead of all the others, so far 
as plausibility of the argument goes, with the exception 
alone of the contention of Swedenborg, which is that 
it came out of a pre-Israelitish church, anterior to the 
time of Moses, and the most probable one of all. Con- 
cerning the nativity of its author, the argument for 
either Arabia or Egypt seems equally good. The work 
has all the old Egyptian passion and genius for sym- 
bolism manifest throughout, and in the efflorescence of 
many of its poetic images, it is clearly Arabic, while all 
1 of the allusions to local customs, business and traditions 
are to those of Arabia. 

An Egypto-Arabic book then, this was, in all prob- 
ability, at first, and its author, either an Arabian or an 
Egyptian, with the greater likelihood in favor of the lat- 
ter, many eminent critics to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing. In his introduction to his commentary on Job the 
Rev. Henry Cowles, D. D., says : "This remarkable 
book, bearing the name of Job, is quite unique in char- 
acter, unlike any other book of the Bible ... a 
book therefore which has no analogy with any other one 
embraced in our Sacred Scriptures." Yet he argues 
learnedly and long to prove it to have been written by 
Moses, the confessed author of several books embraced 
in our Sacred Scriptures. Then further along he says : 
"All the qualities of authorship apparent in the book 
are in fullest accord with the known talents and train- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 3 

ing of Moses, and with the five books which certainly 
came from his hand." 

On the other hand, Froude certainly is right in say- 
ing of the book: "Unjewish in form and in fiercest hos- 
tility with Judaism, it hovers like a meteor over the old 
Hebrew literature, in it, but not of it, compelling the 
acknowledgment of itself by its own internal majesty. 
. " The question now arises : If this book, so 
unjewish in form, and in such fierce hostility with 
Judaism, and though in the Hebrew literature, yet not 
of it, was written by no Hebrew, but by some unknown 
Egyptian or Arabian, how came it ever to have been 
admitted to the Hebrew canon, and so become a recog- 
nized part of the Hebrew Bible? We know that it was 
a fixed and an inflexible rule to admit no writings to the 
Hebrew canon, other than those of known and accred- 
ited prophets of God. And here we quote again from 
Froude, who says : "How it found its way into the 
canon, smiting as it does through and through the most 
deeply seated Jewish prejudices, is the chief difficulty 
about it now . . ." Further, how came it to be in 
the Hebrew literature, if although in it, it is yet not 
of it? 

We will answer this last question first. It was 
found by Moses during his forty years' sojourn in Egypt 
and was by him translated out of the Egyptian tongue 
into the Hebrew, and introduced by him to his people 
as a divine piece of work, and one well worthy of admis- 
sion to the canon of Sacred Scripture. Then, in addi- 
tion to the prestige and authority of Moses, all thrown 
in its behalf, it compelled the acknowledgment of itself 
by its own internal majesty, as the true word of God. 
And so, by a relaxation of the rule, very early, before it 
had become so hard and fixed as afterwards it became, 
the book was admitted to canonicity, notwithstanding 
its foreign origin and authorship. And this, in our judg- 



4 THE NE^ BOOK OF JOB 

ment, is as near as Moses, or any other Hebrew prophet 
or poet, ever came to being the author of the Bbok of 
Job. Another thing which makes that theory imprac- 
ticable is this : At the time when Moses lived there was 
not left in the world that thorough knowledge and ac- 
curate use of the science and art of correspondences 
which this book shows in its structure and composition 
throughout. That gneat scholar and student of the 
Scriptures, Swedenborg, does well, as far as he goes,, in 
saying of Job that "It is full of correspondences . . .," 
and very ill, in adding thereto, "But not like the true 
Word." It is made wholly up of correspondences, and 
it is the true Word of God. 

Great as are the books of Moses, the archaic 
grandeur of the book of Job is over and above them all, 
and is something which quite antedates the possibility 
of its construction at so late a period as when Moses 
was, let alone the question of its individual authorship. 
It speaks for itself of a long past golden age, when the 
thought of God burned in every bush and breathed in 
every wind that blew ; when every created thing, 
whether animate or inanimate, was a form and expres- 
sion of the creative Mind ; when books were written as 
the universe was wrought — in correspondence to and 
with its divine idea, and is itself the one sole but im- 
perishable literary relic of that long past golden age 
that is left in the world today. And why? Because it 
was the one sole product of that period of time which 
contained in itself the elements of its own imperish- 
ability. In a word, it is the Bible, all in one book. 

It is conceded by the critics now, that the first book 
of Moses, or Genesis, is partly or wholly made up of 
compilations of very ancient documents found by him in 
Egypt; and so that the Book of Genesis is of Egyptian 
origin. We know for ourselves that the Egyptian Bible, 
as their collection of sacred writings may be called, and 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 5 

older than any part of ours, except the Book of Job, has 
a Book of Genesis, called "The Beginning." In it the 
same order of creation is observed as in ours, and ends 
with giving to man the dominion of all other crea- 
tures that God has made, and with the command to him 
to multiply and replenish the earth. It begins with 
chaos and darkness upon the face of the deep, and fol- 
lows this up with the sending forth of "the Holy Light" 
in the same order as in our book of The Beginning. In 
short, when we have read this Egyptian book of Genesis 
we are satisfied that we have found the original source 
of the Mosaic cosmogony. 

And now, if we knew that there was never more 
than one man in all the world who was capable of writ- 
ing such a book as this old symbolical book of Job, we 
should instinctively turn to Egypt, the land of emblems, 
riddles and symbols, with its yet unsolved riddle of the 
sphinx of stone sitting in its sand, for the origin and 
authorship of this mightier sphinx of letters, whose rid- 
dle has never yet been read aright. Out of Egypt have 
I called my Son, is written of the Lord by the prophet 
Hosea. Why then may not that prophet of his Son, 
which the author of Job most assuredly is, have also 
been called out of Egypt? 

And if we were asked to name one of the literati of 
ancient Egypt whose writings at all approximate in 
sublimity of tone and style to that of the author of Job, 
his name would be Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus— a 
king among the Pharaohs before the time of Moses, and 
author of The Divine Pymander, or Shepherd of Men. 
Of him Lord Bacon says that he was "of kingly power, 
priestly illumination, and profound wisdom." This 
work, so renowned for its spiritual and "priestly illu- 
mination," for its deep piety toward God, and for its 
"kingly power" of expression, is decided by eminent 
authorities to be authentic, and has been published in 



6 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Arabic, Greek, Latin, French and German. And it 
seems much more likely that the author of The Divine 
Pymander, or Shepherd of Men, either he or some other 
one of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, of ancient Egypt 
should have been the author of this book whose sole 
subject is the Good Shepherd to come, and to lay down 
his life for the sheep of his flock, than it is that it was 
written by any one of the Hebrew prophets. It is not 
that they did not, all of them, testify of Him; for this 
they did,, each one in his own peculiar way. But that 
this book is so thoroughly unique in its character and 
so utterly unlike any other book of the Bible, as almost 
or quite to preclude the possibility of it having been 
written by any of the writers of its other books. 

Our only recourse then is in the thought that out 
of Egypt was this prophet of the Messiah called — as it is 
the main purpose of this treatise to show that the writer 
of Job was. For it is simply inconceivable that to only 
one nation or people was the idea of a great World Re- 
deemer to come ever given. It was given to the Egypt- 
ians long before it was given to the Hebrews ; and it 
should not be thought a strange thing that it may have 
been first derived to the Hebrews from the Egyptians ; 
nor that this great and wonderful piece of work which 
is called the Book of Job may yet be found to have been 
at the beginning a piece of pure Egyptian symbology, 
now Hebraized and modified by having passed through 
the hands of Hebrew translators and editors. 

From this we pass on to the consideration of gen- 
eral principles, irrespective of the question of its national 
or individual origin and authorship, of how this greatest 
of books extant in the world today first came to be, and 
was. First of all, it was no epileptic spasm of individual 
genius, however great and mighty. Like Him of whom 
it is all testimony in its own chosen way, it was pre- 
pared for from the foundation of the world. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 7 

Just as "the Gothic cathedral is a blossoming in 
stone, subdued by the insatiable demand for harmony 
in man," and dating back to its root, through ages of 
architectural study and practice, to the rude chippings 
and carvings of the age of stone, so this mightier cathe- 
dral of the Spirit was, in its day, a complete and full 
consummation of an age of spiritual aspiration and lit- 
erary endeavor, dating back to the first faint dawning of 
the Messianic idea of the world. It was then that the 
first twitterings and pipings of Messianic prophecy 
began, as the early song-birds of the Spirit "shook the 
sweet slumber from their wings at morn," and sang, as 
they were able, of what they felt and saw of the signs 
of the dawning of the world's great new day. And still, 
as the slow centuries crept away, and He who was to 
come to be himself its Light, did not come, the chorus 
of song, sacred to that deathless theme, swelled higher 
and higher until there came the One who was to take it 
up himself alone, and silence and absorb all other sing- 
ing into his own. Then, all the songs ever sang before 
of the world's one pure faith, blended together in one 
great Song of Songs, and all the lights of its one bright 
hope burned together in one great Light of Lights, and 
the bright and morning star o!f Messianic prophecy 
arose on the sky of time, full-orbed, fixed, and forever 
resplendent in Job. 

The glory that "was Greece" is gone, and forever. 
The grandeur that "was Rome" long since fell into 
remediless decay. But the glory and the grandeur of 
this immortal handiwork of the Divine, older, much 
older, than any and all of the renowned classics of an- 
cient Greece and Rome, have suffered no diminution 
nor decay from the lapse of all-corroding Time. And 
when at last the obelisks shall have toppled and turned 
back to the dust from whence derived,, and the pyramids 
shall have been worn by the slow attrition of time down 



8 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

to the indistinguishable level of the desert sands around, 
then it shall still be seen "towering up and alone, far 
above all poetry of the world" — an always imperishable 
monument to the glory of God, and to the literary genius 
and greatness of the age that saw it rise. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Literary Form and Excellence of the Work. 

"Ye nymphs of Sulima begin ye the song; 
To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong." 

All students of the scriptures, of any considerable 
literary knowledge, know that the Book of Job is in the 
form of a dramatic poem, consisting of a prologue, which 
occupies the first two chapters, the poem proper, and an 
epilogue, in the last chapter, all in the regular dramatic 
form. 

But the one fatal defect of all the standard critics 

■ 

upon this peerless piece of literary workmanship, con- 
sists in regarding and treating it as "dramatic in form 
only." This they do in order to uphold and maintain 
its historic truth and verity, for which they seem vastly 
more concerned than for its divine idea. If it is pure 
drama, in spirit as well as in form, it cannot be history, 
they fear; therefore it is so only in its outward form. It 
"is a dramatic poem based on real events," they say ; 
and is, therefore, of a substantial verity as a record of 
real and actual events. 

Now this question of the literary form and method 
of the work is one of much greater importance than at 
first sight it may appear to be to some. For while the 
proper function of history is to record, that of drama is 



10 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

to represent. And the student of this piece of work 
should keep it clearly in mind that it is literature, as 
well as revelation; then, it is of next to the highest im- 
portance that he should know and understand just what 
kind of literature it is. If he reads it as a highly embel- 
lished and poetic record of past transpired events, he 
will never be able to satisfy himself where the poetry 
leaves off, and the history begins, or vice versa. 

Moreover, he will frequently come to occurrences of 
events which, as literal facts, he can never reconcile with 
human observation and experience; such, for instance,, 
as that of the coming of the Almighty in person, and 
out of the depths of a mighty commotion of the ele- 
ments, called a "whirlwind," delivering an address to 
Job, in answer to what Job had been saying, and con- 
sisting of four whole chapters of the book, with every 
word distinctly audible to his ears, and copied by some- 
body, and reported verbatim et literatim for the edifica- 
tion* of future generations. 

Whereas, by clearing the record of every vestige of 
literalism, from first to last, discarding the historical 
theory in toto, and by changing his conception of the lit- 
erary form and method of the work,, from that of a 
poetic rendering of past transpired events, to that of a 
purely dramatic rendition of things to come to pass in 
a future age of the world — the Messianic age — every- 
thing is changed ; the whole book is changed, and a way 
opened for the solution of not only this, but of every 
other equally insoluble mystery in the entire story of 
Job — from the historical point of view so narrow, so 
shallow, and so beset with insurmountable difficulties as 
it is, throughout the narrative in its entirety. 

And now the literary form and method of the old, 
old, and always beautiful book, even from the narrow 
and circumscribed point of view of the literalists, be- 
come suddenly invested with a supernormal excellence 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 11 

never observed before. From being a vehicle of revela- 
tion, it becomes a revelation itself of the wonderful 
powers and possibilities of the divine tongue, as vehicled 
in words of human speech. Every word therein is raised 
out of its low, ordinary use and meaning, up to a high, 
extraordinary and divine meaning and use. A single 
example from the speech of Christ, who spoke often, if 
not always, in the divine tongue, will illustrate this. 
When he said to Peter : "Feed my sheep," the words he 
used were such plain, simple words as any keeper of 
sheep might use in giving directions to his shepherds 
to give them food. 

But we know that by his sheep, Jesus meant his 
spiritual flock; and that his direction to feed his sheep 
signifies, give them spiritual sustenance. And it is on 
this principle, and according to this method, that this 
book,, that is called Job, is constructed throughout, word 
for word. By Job of Uz is signified Jesus of Nazareth. 
By the sheep of Job are meant the spiritual flock of 
Christ. By their being burned up and consumed by the 
"fire of God" falling on them from heaven, is signified 
that destruction of his flock in after centuries, of which 
Jesus forewarned them in his day. 

Thus much of our interpretation of the text of the 
story throughout is anticipated here in order to illus- 
trate the running secret of its literary form throughout, 
which is the same as illustrated here. The secret of its 
peerless excellence lies in the admirable choice of its 
figures and in their perfect adaptation to their purpose. 
When chosen from the animal kingdom, which many of 
them are, it is seen, when the figure is understood, that 
no other animal under heaven than the one chosen could 
so well have answered the purpose in view. It is the 
same when they are taken from the phenomena of na- 
ture, or from the character and conduct of men, as in 



12 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the case of Job, the perfect and upright man, and of his 
three false friends — all "forgers of lies, and physicians 
of no value." 

The secret of the immense force and strength of it 
all is in the powerful compactness of its formulas 
whereby a vast meaning is condensed within the smallest 
possible word-space ; and then, in their unity of purpose, 
and consecutive and orderly arrangement for its accom- 
plishment. And just here is where some of the ablest 
of the critics of the work, as a piece of literature, have 
most signally erred. They say that as a whole it lacks 
unity and consecutiveness. They base this charge mainly 
on the speech of EHhu, the fourth speaker against Job. 

No sooner has the great debate between Job and 
his three friends, which makes up the bulk of the poem 
proper, ended,, with Job the victor, than a young man, 
EHhu by name, bounds suddenly and unexpectedly into 
the arena and takes up the cudgels against Job with 
wonderful vigor, and belabors him through five chapters 
of the book. At the beginning of the sixth chapter of 
his discourse his heart trembles, "and is moved out of 
his place," as he says, and from this on he softens to- 
wards Job, and ends all by asking Job to teach him what 
is right to say unto God ; in a word, he is converted to 
faith in Job. 

This long speech of EHhu is what the critics decry 
as marring the unity and breaking up the consecutive- 
ness of the narrative, and so impairing its perfection as 
a piece of literary workmanship, without shedding any 
light on the moral of the story. 

This error has, like so many other errors of the 
critics of Job, arisen out of that total misconception of 
the fundamental character, scope and function of the 
work which makes history out of prophecy, and which 
they all share alike. This speech of EHhu is an indis- 
pensably necessary part of the program of the work, both 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 13 

as revelation and as literature. That program is to set 
forth, under suitable figures, all of the leading and more 
important events and phenomena of the Christian dis- 
pensation, from its beginning to its close. 

And this speech of EHhu's contains, or consists of, a 
forecast of one of the most important events of the 
Christian era,, namely: the giving of the gospel to the 
Gentiles, after its rejection by the Jews, as will be more 
clearly shown hereafter. Elihu himself is, like Job of 
Jesus, a prototype of the great apostle to the Gentiles, 
St. Paul. And to have omitted his speech from the 
Book of Job, as some of its critics say it should have 
been, for the sake of literary harmony and proportion, 
as well as for lack of interest in itself, would have been 
an omission fatal alike to the completeness of its revela- 
tion, and to the literary perfection of the world's one 
great masterpiece of literary workmanship. 

When men get an idea from God they speak or write 
with an all unwonted beauty, brilliance and power; they 
become poets who were only plodders before, and they 
can but sing what they say. And sometimes that idea is 
potent enough within them to itself shape and form its 
own outward expression. They are then plenarily in- 
spired; neither their thoughts nor their words are their 
own. Then what they write is the Word of God. This, 
after all, is the real secret of the peerless excellence of 
the Book of Job, considered as literature alone; it was 
written under divine inspiration and direction from start 
to finish, word for word. 

True, the amanuensis of the Spirit may have been, 
or must have been, a great scholar and poet ; but these 
things only fitted him to become a more perfect instru- 
ment for the Spirit to work with than he otherwise could 
have been. But as the idea of the work was not his, but 
God's, so only the hand of God could direct the fashion- 
ing of its idea into that literary and representative form 



14 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

thereof, which the world ever since has blindly and ig- 
norantly looked upon and regarded only as the Book of 
Job. 

True it is that all its readers have been stirred by 
the lofty strains of sublimity with which the book every- 
where abounds ; yet none regard these as anything more 
than the uplift of the lofty mind and imagination of a 
great poet who recognizes with scholarly propriety the 
truth that to heavenly themes sublimer strains belong, 
and adapts his style to his theme. Whereas, he only 
hears a tone "that breathes from worlds unknown," and 
can transcribe it only in such terms as are given him, 
knowing nothing of the meaning of a word of it all. 

Like him of whom the whole celestial song and 
story is a celebration, he said in it only what he heard 
from heaven, and in the way in which he heard it. The 
whole secret then of the all-surpassing excellence of this 
piece of work, considered as literature alone, is in the 
truth that, like the firmament above, it is the handiwork 
of the Divine. 



CHAPTER III, 

Correspondences — What They Are and How Applied. 

"What if earth be but the shadow of heaven, and 
things therein more to each other like than on earth is 
thought?"— Milton. 

There is, says the philosopher Fichte, a divine idea 
pervading the whole and every part of this visible uni- 
verse of ours, of which divine idea the visible universe 
is but the outward form, sign, and symbol. To the mass 
of mankind, this divine idea lies almost, if not quite 
wholly hidden. Yet, to grasp it, to apprehend it, to live 
wholly in it, and to be guided solely by it, is at once the 
highest possible attainment of the human mind, and the 
sole condition of all genuine virtue. This, in a general 
way, states and defines the doctrine of correspondence 
admirably well. And it is this all-around likeness of 
things visible to things invisible, that is called corre- 
spondence ; and in its particulars,, correspondences. 

Anciently, the doctrine and laws of correspondence 
were much better known and understood than at the 
present day. Correspondence was erected into a sci- 
ence; and from this was developed an art' for the appli- 
cation of its principles. The former was the noblest of 
all the sciences ever known to man, the knowledge and 
understanding of it being, as Fichte truly says, the 



16 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

highest possible attainment of the human mind ; and 
the latter, by far the most excellent of all the arts ever 
acquired in the whole history, of the human race ; for by 
the knowledge and use of this science and art, human 
beings held correspondence with divine beings and with 
heaven. 

To the Past Grand Masters of this Science of sci- 
ences, and this Art of arts, the whole visible universe 
was an open book, wherein they saw the handwriting of 
God on every created thing, from the least to the great- 
est, and could read it, and transcribe it into terms of 
human speech. Their best books were all written in the 
sign language of the universe. And it was during some 
period of this now long past golden age of literature 
that was written the book we call today the Book of 
Job. Other books of the Bible, later written, also furnish 
evidence that their writers had knowledge of corre- 
spondence. Moses saw God in a burning bush on Mount 
Horeb; but when this book was written, to the writer, 
the thought of God burned in every bush, stood and 
blossomed in every tree, while every wind that blew 
was as the wind at Pentecost, at once a sound and a 
sign. Nothing existed of itself, nor for itself, but every 
thing as a sign or symbol of some divine idea. 

Every stone was a truth,, descended and fixed ; every 
rock was as the unchanging and everlasting Truth and 
Good. All of the resplendent rivers, rolling back in 
majesty to the sea from whence they came in mist, were 
correspondences to the greatened and glorified souls of 
men, returning to "that immortal sea which brought us 
hither" through the cloud and mist of this, our mortal 
state. The higher mountains were sovereign powers of 
the world ; the hills, the same in a lower degree, while 
the valleys were the peoples at their feet in a fixed state 
of subjection to their lords and masters. The sea was 
the universal soul of man, and its waves the peoples in 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 17 

their multitudes and motions. The sun, with its light 
and heat, was Love. The moon, with its reflected and 
colder light, was Faith; while beyond, "High hopes" 
shone in the scattered orbs of night. 

The constellations, as Pleiades, Orion, and Maz- 
zaroth, all mentioned in Job, were used as correspond- 
ences to peace, war and governments, both temporal 
and spiritual, in the world below. And when it came to 
the animal kingdom, did God take such care for croco- 
diles, leviathans, behemoths and unicorns, as to inspire 
his greatest poet and prophet to write anatomical and 
physiological dissertations on their structure and func- 
tions as mere animals, such as we find drawn out in the 
Book of Job, and these in the words of the Lord himself? 
Or rather, are not all these taken and used as corre- 
spondences to some of the world powers of the Mes- 
sianic age to come, and in other forms and combinations 
than those of flesh and blood and bone? 

Or, as Paul asks, does God take care for oxen, or 
camels, or sheep, that he should direct his prophet of the 
Messiah to make a careful enumeration of each flock or 
herd of these in possession by a patriarch of the land of 
Uz, whose name was Job? Did the Almighty come in 
person, and from the midst of a mighty commotion of 
the elements, called a "whirlwind," name and number 
these members of the animal kingdom, and, in the in- 
stance of some of the larger of them, give a carefully 
detailed description of their anatomy, merely to con- 
vince the patriarch Job that he could not have so created 
and constructed them — as the critics would have us think, 
or believe without thinking? Or, rather than this, are 
not all of these employed as correspondences to things 
of vastly greater importance than themselves? We shall 
see, when we come to our exposition of these figures, 
whether or not we can make something of them better 



18 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

comporting with the dignity of a divine revelation than 
has heretofore been made of them by the schoolmen. 

All of these figures from the animal kingdom, of 
which there are many, of which no mention is here made, 
making altogether, as they do, so important a feature 
of the address of the deity to Job, out of the whirlwind, 
are but so many wrought correspondences to things 
pertaining to Christ and the Christian era ; the last, and 
largest of them all — as those of the unicorn, behemoth, 
and leviathan — being of some of the great institutions, 
enterprises and inventions of the era. . How these, 
together with all of the leading and main correspond- 
ences of the narrative, are to be applied in order to gain 
a right understanding of it all, is indicated below — be- 
ginning with him who is the head and the heart of them 
all: 

For Job of Uz, and his perfect character, should be 
read — Jesus of Nazareth. 

For the wife of Job — -The apostate bride; or the 
church in apostacy. 

For his seven sons — The church outward, organic, 
and militant. 

For his three daughters — The church spiritual, 
pure, and perennial. 

For his flocks and herds — Ranks and grades of the 
servitors of Christ. 

For the sons of God — All those born of the Spirit. 

Their coming to present themselves before the Tord 
— The early Christian church, in its assemblages for di- 
vine worship. 

The Satan who comes also among them — Anti- 
Christ in the early church. 

The persecutions and afflictions of Job — Those suf- 
fered by the Christ in person, and afterwards in his 
people. 

The violent death of the sons of Job— The destruc- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 19 

tion of the church, outward and organic, in after cen- 
turies. 

The preserved life of his three daughters — The 
preservation of the spiritual life of the church from the 
death of the body. 

The three false friends of Job — The chief priests, 
scribes and Pharisees. 

The great debate between Job and his professed 
friends — Christianity versus Judaism. 

The fourth speaker and persecutor of Job — Saul of 
Tarsus ; afterwards Paul, the great apostle to the Gen- 
tiles. 

The whirlwind of the Lord — A revolutionary epoch 
of the Christian era. 

The answer of the Lord to Job, out of the whirl- 
wind — The stirring events of the whirlwind age, answer- 
ing to the influence of Christ in the world, given as vocal 
utterances of the deity. 

Beginning with its prophecy at the beginning of the 
Christian era, this sublime address opens with allusions 
to the creation of the natural heaven and earth, as cor- 
respondences to the creation of the new Messianic 
heaven and earth to come, and sweeping grandly for- 
ward, on to the close of the dispensation, touches in its 
passing all of the leading and more important events, 
enterprises and inventions of the era; most of these 
under aptly chosen figures from the animal kingdom; 
some of them from other sources. With reference to the 
wonderful spread of light and knowledge during this 
era, even "to the ends of the earth," there is an allusion 
to a mysterious something which is called "it," and it is 
said of it, that "it is turned as clay to the seal." 

For "it" should be read, or understood — The print- 
ing press of today. 

For the talking lightnings, which say, "Here we 
are" — The electric telegraph. 



20 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

For the lion, for whom the prey is hunted — that 
"roaring lion," the devil. 

For the raven — The black spectre of unbelief, flit- 
ting in the sky of the age. 

For the wild goats of the rock — False prophets and 
schismatic sects. 

For the wild ass of the wilderness — Infidel philoso- 
phy of the era. 

For the unicorn — All mechanical substitutes for 
manual labor, under one head. 

For the horse, his neck clothed with thunder — The 
iron horse of today. 

For the behemoth, who "eateth grass as an ox" — A 
great and pacific government, the United States of 
America. 

For the leviathan, whose "breath kindleth coals." 
and "out of his nostrils goeth smoke" — The iron-built 
battleship of the iron age. 

For the reconciliation of his false friends to Job, in 
the last chapter of the book, in which the prophecies 
reach past the present day — The conversion of the Jews 
to Christ. 

For the turning of the captivity of Job, when he 
prayed for his friends — The salvation of Israel, "when 
the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people." 

For the death of Job, when he was old and full of 
days — The end of the age. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Patriarch Job. 

"Brightest and best of the sons of the morning! 
Dawn on our darkness,, and lend us thine aid." 

The first verse of the divine old Messianic drama 
that is called the Book of Job, reads as follows : 

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose 
name was Job ; and that man was perfect and 
upright, and one that feared God and eschewed 
evil. 

And it is this first verse of the prologue of the 
drama, with its plain statement that there was a man 
bearing the name of Job, and that he lived in the land 
of Uz, that is the main reliance of the scholars and 
critics in their efforts to maintain the reality of the per- 
son called Job, and the "substantial" historic truth of 
the story of Job throughout. For they say : "The names 
of persons, and of places, are mentioned in it with a 
particularity not to be looked for in a work of fiction. " 
This, in full view of the fact that in some of the greatest 
and best recognized works of fiction, both of ancient and 
modern times, the names of persons, and of places, are 
mentioned with at least as much particularity as here, 
or anywhere in this book. 



22 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Then, "St. James speaks of Job as a model of pa- 
tience ; which he would not have been apt to do unless 
he had believed him to have been a real person." To 
this it is answered that the fact that St. James speaks 
of Job only as a model of patience, comes nearer to prov- 
ing that he regarded him only as a model of that virtue, 
than it does to showing his belief in him as a real per- 
son. Again : "In Ezekiel, Job is mentioned in connec- 
tion with Noah and Daniel,, all equally assumed to be 
real men." But the context shows that these names are 
used here as character-names, which does not necessarily 
imply that any of them were those of real persons, al- 
though one or two of them may have been so. So, too, 
in the allegory of Eden, Satan is mentioned in connec- 
tion with Adam and Eve ; but this does not necessarily 
mean that Satan was or is, a real person, even if the 
other two of the trio were so. No more does it imply 
that Job was a real person, because his name is used in 
connection with those of Noah and Daniel, in the book 
of Ezekiel. 

Then we are told that "the land of Uz was a real 
land ; and the Sabeans and Chaldeans named in the story 
of Job, were real peoples." Ergo : Job was a real and 
historic person; and all of the other persons named 
therein, were real and historic persons; and all of the 
events and phenomena related and described in his book 
were real and actual occurrences, "substantially" so. 
And lastly, as a clincher of the whole argument, "to this 
day the Arabs point out the spot in the Houran where 
Job dwelt." 

So, too, the land of Italy was and is a real land; and 
the Italians and Venetians, real people; and the city of 
Venice, a real city — where the site is laid for the acts 
and scenes of that one of the greatest of modern dramas, 
"The Merchant of Venice," with its leading character, 
the merchant, borrowing a large sum of money from the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 23 

Jew, Shy lock, and signing a bond to forfeit a pound of 
his flesh, to be cut from his body by the Jew, in case 
the money was not repaid at a stipulated time, and with 
the money not repaid, and the Jew bringing the case to 
trial, and insisting on the payment of the forfeit, at the 
risk of the life of the merchant, and with the fair Portia 
pleading for the life of her Antonio, and outwitting the 
Jew by admitting the legality of his claim, but insisting 
that in the taking of his pound of flesh he must not shed 
one drop of Christian blood. Yet we know that none of 
the dramatis personam of this great play ever lived in 
Venice or elsewhere in the world; and that none of its 
scenes or acts were ever witnessed or performed there, 
or anywhere, in reality. 

Doubtless enough, there were money borrowing 
merchants and money lending Jews in Venice, and lov- 
ers, like Lorenzo and Jessica, and mistresses, and maids, 
and lawyers and judges galore; and we know that out of 
this mass of loose, ungathered materials to draw from, 
the poet and dramatist gathered the basis of his play to 
build upon,, and that the whole splendid superstructure 
was wrought "in the highest heaven of invention" — his 
own. 

But when it comes to a sacred drama, like this of 
Job, dealing, as it does, with the profoundest problems 
of human life and destiny, both here and hereafter, and 
with God's moral government of the universe, and with 
his plan for the redemption of the human race, we fall 
down in a slavish subjection to "the letter that killeth" 
interpretation, and limit our highest conception of the 
work to that of a moral to be derived from the experi- 
ence of a patriarch of the land of Uz, in the long ago. 
But, O land of Uz ! Land of the lotus leaf and dreams 
divine ! Beautiful Uz ! Over whose shadowy borders 
once there flowed "bright rays from a world of endless 
morn," while "in the nearer fields" flowers of immortal 



24 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

poesy and prophecy were born. Glorified ground — to 
have been, before Bethlehem and Patmos had found a 
place, either in history or prophecy, the chosen site for 
the acts and scenes of the world's one great and perfect 
drama of human suffering and redemption, and typical 
home of him who is the great prototype of its sole Re- 
deemer. 

And now again, just as doubtless as the facts of the 
former instance mentioned, there were pious and wealthy 
patriarchs in the land of Uz, either at or prior to the 
time of the composition of the book of Job. All of these 
had wives and children, presumably, and most of them 
more than one wife and ten children. Some of them 
would, naturally or providentially, be distinguished 
above the average, both for their wealth and for their 
piety, just as Job is represented to have been. Again, 
some, if not all of them, combined in one person the of- 
fice of "husband, father, priest and sage," just as Job 
is said to have done. And it was out of this aggregate 
of patriarchal wealth and piety, that the writer of Job 
culled and collected the materials for the construction 
of his figure of the patriarch of souls, adding something 
to it which none of them possessed — perfection ; for he 
was not, like an historian, the slave of his materials, but 
their master ; and could add to, or take from them, at his 
pleasure, or according to his need. 

There, too, lay the wide spreading, softly undulat- 
ing plain, grassy and green — fair type of the green pas- 
tures and still waters of Beulah land — with all the "di- 
vine green silence" thereof, broken only by the mellow 
lowing of distant kine, or the bleating call of "woolly 
dams" to their straying offspring. There, too, lay 
crouched behind the dim distant hills, or some high un- 
dulation of the plain, the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, 
waiting an opportune moment to rush forth and raid the 
flocks and herds of the wealthy plainsmen — foul type, as 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 25 

used by the writer, of that suffering of violence by the 
kingdom of heaven when it should be set up on the earth 
in the latter days. In brief, it was out of the general 
ground of conditions as they existed in the land of Uz, 
gathered by the writer of Job, and shaped 2nd moulded 
to suit his purpose, all under divine inspiration and direc- 
tion, that the basic materials only, for the construction 
of the Jobic drama came. 

Given and granted then, thus much of an historic 
basis for the work, there all literalism ends ; and all the 
acts and scenes thereof were the acts and scenes of a 
divinely inspired invention and construction on the part 
of its composer. None of them had ever been performed 
<^r witnessed there, or elsewhere on earth, as related and 
described by him. Of the truth of this, the story itself, 
quite apart from all efforts at interpretation, bears abun- 
dant internal evidence, when closely examined as to its 
particulars. 

And now, to revert again to the secular drama, if 
some two thousand years hence, some belated and 
befogged professor of old English letters should be heard 
to argue : Yes, yes, that old masterpiece of English lit- 
erature, "The Merchant of Venice," is an undoubtably 
historic document, a story of actual events and occur- 
rence ; for look you! the names of persons, and of places, 
are mentioned in it with a particularity not to be looked 
for in a work of fiction. Then, the land of Italy was a 
real land; and the Italians and Venetians were real peo- 
ple. Besides all this, some two thousand years ago, a 
noted divine of that day spoke of Shylock as a monster 
of cruelty and greed, which he would not have been apt 
to do unless he had believed him to have been a real per- 
son. And lastly, to this day, the Venetians point out the 
print of Portia's feet in a marble slab from the floor of 
the court room where she stood when she made her 
weighty plea for the life of Antonio. This shows that 



26 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

she must have stood there — just as plainly as the point- 
ing out by the Arabs, of the spot in the Houran where 
Job dwelt, shows that he must have dwelt there. Then 
the arguments of the scholars and critics of today, in 
support of their professed belief that Job was a real per- 
son, and that the narrative of his life and experiences 
is one of actual occurrences, would be fairly duplicated; 
especially in the last particular thereof, the pointing out 
of the spot where Job dwelt. 

These things are noticed here to show what des- 
perate resorts the literalists are reduced to, in order to 
make a show of argument on behalf of the false and un- 
tenable hypothesis of the reality of the person of Job — 
such as the mention of names and places in the story, 
the reality of the land of Uz, the speaking of Job by St. 
James, and lastly, that acme of all absurdity, as argu- 
ment, one of the tricks of those wily and mendacious 
Arabs who make a dishonest living out of credulous and 
pecunious travelers, by pointing out, for a small cash 
consideration, any kind of spot they may wish to have 
pointed out. 

But now, to turn to the evidence of the story itself, 
as to who, or what, Job was, or is, we have seen that in 
the first verse thereof, perfection is imputed to him by 
the writer. Then, in the eighth verse, this is confirmed 
by the Lord himself, where he says to Satan, of Job, that 
for uprightness of conduct, and perfection of character,, 
"there is none like him in the earth." Here, by one 
stroke of his biographer's pen, the limits of all merely 
human excellence are transcended. The Almighty in 
person brings forth the royal diadem,, and crowns him 
Lord of all the earth. And throughout, the wonderful 
love of the Lord for Job, is one of the most, if not quite 
the most touching phases of the old, old story. It is, 
in Messianic prophecy, the equivalent of — This is my be- 
loved Son — of the gospel record. 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 27 

Going back now to the fourth and fifth verses, we 
find that so often as his sons went and feasted in their 
houses, that Job "sent and sanctified them." And it is 
added, "Thus did Job continually." 

Now who is he who alone has the power to sanctify 
his sons? And what is here preindicated in the doing of 
this continually? Can this be any other than the Christ 
of God? And what can be signified in this continual 
service of Job in this capacity, other than the perpetual 
priesthood of him of whom the Lord sware, and would 
not repent, saying, "Thou art a priest forever after the 
order of Melchisedec." Is not the mask of this patri- 
archal image of the Christ to come, already sufficiently 
transparent for us to see somewhat clearly through it the 
lineaments of him of whom it is all a wrought likeness? 
And what do we lack now of full conviction of this 
truth, save only to see it perfectly and fully clarified in 
the raising of Job up to the high rank of a redeemer and 
deliverer of sinners from the wrath of God? 

This, we do see when at last, after the long and 
acrimonious debate between Job and his three false 
friends is ended, with Job the victor, and the Lord has 
answered him,, out of the whirlwind, and his wrath is 
kindled against them, because they have not spoken of 
him the thing that is right, as his servant Job has, and 
he commands them to take seven bullocks and seven 
rams, and go to his servant Job with them, and offer up 
for themselves a burnt offering, and his servant Job 
should pray for them, for him, would he accept. This 
they do, and the prayer of his beloved servant Job on 
their behalf, is accepted by the Lord, and they are deliv- 
ered and saved from the wrath of God. 

And now, what more do we need than this, to fully 
convince and satisfy us that in Job of Uz we have found 
nothing more, nor less, than a wrought correspondence 
in Messianic prophecy to the character and ofBce of the 



28 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

great mediator between God and man, and intercessor 
for the sins of his people, Jesus, the Christ? We have 
found the stamp of perfection upon him in the first verse 
of his biography ; and this, sealed and confirmed by the 
Lord of the drama,, soon afterward. He is practically 
crucified, and resurrected, as the sequel shows. He is 
taunted on his cross, as 'was the Christ, and sarcastically 
recommended to save himself, he who had been so great 
a savior of others. He comes out victorious over all his 
enemies, and prays for their forgiveness, as did the 
Christ. His prayer is accepted by the Lord, and they 
are forgiven for his sake. He is restored to health, with 
all of his lost wealth returned to him, and as much more 
with it, while his dead sons, and lost daughters, are with 
him again, together with all of his former friends and ac- 
quaintances, every man of them bringing to him a piece 
of money, and an earring of gold ; all of this, in a figure 
of the restoration of all things to him who lost all things 
for the salvation of lost souls. He gives his daughters 
inheritance among" their brethren — the doing away in 
Christ, of the old distinction of male and female — lives 
to see four generations of his sons — all of those who are 
to be born of him — and dies when he is old and satisfied 
of days — the close of the dispensation, or consummation 
of the Messianic age. 

Lastly, it is suggested that had there been in the 
ancient days, a patriarch of the land of Uz, or of any 
other land, to whom was vouchsafed of heaven the grace 
and power to sanctify the souls of men, as Job is said to 
have done, and to successfully intercede with their Maker 
for the forgiveness of their sins, and procure the pardon 
of the Almighty for them, all for his own sake, there had 
never been a need of any other savior of men than the 
patriarch Job. And we, today, would have been living 
in the Jobian, instead of the Christian era ; and our sup- 
plications for the sanctification of our souls, and the for- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 29 

giveness of our sins, would now have been ending with, 
for Job's sake, instead of, as they are, for Jesus' sake. 

Indeed,, so close and accurate is the correspondence 
between the beneficent character, and self-sacrificing- 
conduct of the perfect and upright man, Job, as set forth 
in this assumed narrative of his life and experience, and 
those of the perfect and upright man, Jesus, as his- 
torically narrated and truthfully described in the gos- 
pels, that had the Christ,- of whom Job is so perfect a 
picture, never come, we could have loved Job as well as 
now we love him of whom Job is but a picture — a shadow 
picture, projected from out the eternal world, and thrown 
on the canvas of time, where it has hung through all the 
centuries of time since its original came, unrecognized 
as his, for that the time had not yet come for our eyes 
to be opened to see and recog'nize it as such. 

Again, it is submitted that had there been in the 
land of Uz, or any other land, a man by the name of 
Job, or any other name,, of such stupendous greatness of 
character and office, and the question of whose personal 
integrity was one of such overwhelming importance to 
the world of mankind as to call for a convention of the 
sovereign powers of the spiritual universe — the Al- 
mighty in person, great Satan, and the Sons of God — to 
settle it, as is said to have been done for Job, the world 
would have heard more of that man than it has heard of 
Job. The pages of all subsequent history would have 
been blazoned with the records of his mighty sayings 
and doings — as they have been, and are, and will be to 
the end of time, with those of him, of whom Job is but 
a shadow picture on the page of Messianic prophecy. 

In the place of all this, or of any part of it, God's 
greatest man of all the ages past, great enough to have 
been made the sole subject of one whole book of the in- 
spired word of God, drops out of "history" at the close 
of this brief narrative of his life and experience, as si- 



30 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

lently as an autumn leaf from its parent stem, and is 
seen, or heard from or of, no more forever. That this 
would not,, and could not have been so, had this man, 
"Job," been a real person, and one of such supernormal 
and unequalled greatness as he is typically portrayed to 
have been, is submitted to the candid judgment of the 
unprejudiced and impartial reader. 

For ourself, taking it for granted, as we do, that this 
is a part of those scriptures of which the Christ said 
that they testify of him, it becomes a matter of prime 
importance that the question was, or was not, Job a real 
person, should be settled in advance of farther reading 
of the book, if it is possible so to do. For upon the set- 
tlement of this question, either way, depends our view 
of everything that follows. If he was a real person, and 
lived in the land of Uz, the book is history, and the his- 
torists have everything their own way. 

But there have been many thoughtful and well-in- 
formed persons who have, from the beginning, doubted 
the reality of the person of Job, and the authenticity of 
the whole work, as history. One of these was himself 
the author of one book of the Bible,, Ezra, who said of 
Job, "It is prophecy of some kind." An eminent Jewish 
rabbi, one thousand years B. C, said, "Job is a myth; 
Job never was." Both of these were right; Job never 
was, and the book is prophecy — Messianic prophecy. 
Read as history, it is impossible to make any intelligible 
Messianic testimony out of it, or to give credence to 
some of its statements of facts k and events, as of real 
and actual occurrences. What Origen says of the scrip- 
tures at large, that "many things are related in the scrip- 
tures as though they had been actual events, which 
could not by any possibility have SO' occurred," is pre- 
eminently applicable to this book; many things are re- 
lated in it as though they had been actual events, which 
could not by any possibility have occurred, as related 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 31 

and described. And chief of these, is the statement that 
there was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, 
and afterwards, whose gifts and graces were those of 
the Christ himself, and his alone ; namely : to sanctify 
the souls of men,, and to save sinners from the wrath of 
God, already kindled against them. 

We know, too, in all reason, that Satan never act- 
ually and literally in person smote Job with sore boils 
from sole to crown ; and that the delivery of an address 
by the deity to Job, distinctly audible to his ears over 
the rush and roar of a whirlwind, is something that 
never actually and literally occurred. In short, the 
whole story is beset with, insuperable difficulties from 
beginning to end, as a record of actual circumstances 
and events ; and all in vain have been the efforts of all 
the scholars and critics to overcome them, and neces- 
sarily so, arguing from a false hypothesis to start with 
— that of the historic verity of the narrative as a whole. 

But now, no sooner is the ground of study of the 
book shifted from that of history to that of prophecy, 
than all of these otherwise insurmountable difficulties 
vanish like magic. All of these wonderful events and 
phenomena are but so many wrought correspondences 
to those of the Messianic age, or Christian era, with Job, 
great, Christ-like Job, for the front and head of them all. 
This settled at the start, the way is open and clear to 
the finish, for a solution of all the many and long 
vexed problems of this oldest book of the Bible. 

And now, believing as we do, that he whose light 
and aid were invoked at the beginning of this chapter, 
has dawned on our darkness, and lent us his aid, and 
that he will continue to do this to the end, it is to this 
long and large, but most delightsome task, that the re- 
maining chapters of this treatise are hopefully and con- 
fidently dedicated. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Sons and Daughters of Job — Symbolical Offspring 
of a Symbolical Sire. 

In the second verse of this first chapter of the book 
we read as follows : 

And there were born unto him seven sons 
and three daughters. 

That a patriarch of the land of Uz should have sons 
and .daughters born unto him, would be indispensably 
necessary to the making of a patriarch of him, since the 
name or title of patriarch signifies the head, either of a 
church or of a family. In this instance it signifies both ; 
as a figure of the patriarch of souls it was necessary to 
anything like its completeness that Job should have sons 
and daughters born unto him, in order to represent the 
growth and increase of the patriarchate of Christ. 

In Isaiah 9 :7, it is foretold of him that "Of the in- 
crease of his government and peace there shall be no 
end." 

And this is what is prefigured and foretold here in 
the form of a family of sons and daughters born unto 
the patriarch Job. For the author and composer of the 
book of Job was not looking for unnatural and improb- 
able things to illustrate its truths and ideas with, and 
used them only when there was nothing in nature that 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 33 

he could find to illustrate them with. And this is the 
sole secret of the perfectly natural and probable looking 
circumstance that Job had a family of sons and daugh- 
ters born unto him — in the prophetic drama. Nothing 
else could have answered his purpose so well as this. 

Yet, natural and probable as this circumstance ap- 
pears to be, on the face of it, and considered separately 
and alone, by itself, when considered in connection with, 
and in its relation to other circumstances of the case, 
there is something about it and in it which goes to show 
that it was never intended to be understood as a record 
of any literal and actual fact, but only as a constructed 
record for some representative purpose. 

And it is this : That a great, wealthy and power- 
ful prince, such as Job is represented to have been, and 
living in a polygamous age and land, when polygamy, 
and the multiplication and replenishment of the earth 
were not merely privileges to be enjoyed by a few, but 
duties wftich every patriotic and pious citizen owed to 
his country, and his Maker, should never have had in 
the whole course of his long life, more than one wife, 
nor at any one time thereof, more than ten children; 
for these make up the entire family record of Job, the 
greatest patriarch of them all. 

Had the record been made to read that there were 
born unto him seventy sons, and thirty daughters, it 
would have been, under all the circumstances of the 
case, a far less surprising one than it is, simple as it at 
first appears to be. Then, another feature of the family 
record of the patriarch of Uz, which does not even ap- 
pear on the face of it, to be either natural or probable, 
as a record of literal fact, is that in his old age, and after 
his restoration, he has another family of children con- 
sisting of the same number total as that of his first one, 
or ten in all, and of exactly the same proportion of the 
sexes, or seven sons and three daughters. That it is 



34 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

another, and not the same family as at first, is shown by 
the account meanwhile, of the death of all his seven sons 
by the fall of their house upon them, before "a great 
wind from the wilderness," while what became of his 
three daughters, who were in the house with their broth- 
ers when it fell upon, and killed them, there is no ac- 
count of. 

The point is here, that the extreme improbability 
that any man of all the world ever had two families of 
children, one in his early manhood, and the other in his 
old age, each family consisting of the same total num- 
ber, and of the same proportion of' sons and daughters 
as the other, or seven sons and three daughters — helps, 
along with all the other circumstances, to reflect the 
light of improbability back upon the first record, both as 
one of literal facts, and as to its numbers. This is 
dwelt upon here to show that the argument for the his- 
toricity of the book before us, that is based on the nat- 
ural and probable look of some of its initial statements, 
is not nearly so valid as is claimed for it. 

The next thing that we note in this family record of 
Job's, is that the numbers of his offspring are the well- 
known symbolical numbers of the Bible, seven and 
three. This also, of itself alone considered, casts no sus- 
picion upon the record, as not of literal facts. It is 
something that might occur in any family ; and which, 
as a matter of fact, does so occur, in many families — but 
not twice in any one family, very often, if ever. But 
when we come to note the predominance of these two 
numbers throughout the book, or where there is occa- 
sion to use numbers at all, then their use in the family 
record of Job, begins to become interesting. He not 
only has seven sons and three daughters, twice in his 
life, but when it comes to the enumeration of his live 
stock possessions, he has seven thousand sheep, and 
three thousand camels. Then, when the Sabeans and 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 35 

Chaldeans plan a raid on his flocks and herds, the Chal- 
deans make out "three bands" of their forces to fall upon 
them with. Then, after he has been smitten down to 
the ground by Satan, and the tidings of what had be- 
fallen the great patriarch had gone out through the 
length and breadth of the land, of all the hosts of friends 
that such an one as he would be certain to see flocking" 
to him to mourn with hini, and to comfort him, there are 
simply and only "three." And now, we are already as- 
sured that this is not a number of record, but of repre- 
sentation. And, behold ! they sit down on the ground 
with him, "seven days and seven nights." And at last 
they are commanded by the Lord to take "seven bul- 
locks and seven rams," and make a burnt offering of 
them, for themselves. 

Nature loves the number five, it is said; but it is not 
in human nature to have its experiences occur so uni- 
formly by sevens, and threes, as they are made to do in 
the experience of Job. And it is not by accident, nor by 
mere coincidence, that they are made so to do, but by, 
and in accordance with the deep laid design of the whole 
story of Job. And now, having satisfied ourselves, even 
upon so cursory an examination as this, that the num- 
bers of the sons and daughters of Job are not numbers 
of record, but purposely chosen numbers for something 
of greater import than merely to let us know just how 
many children he had, and what proportion of the two 
sexes they were of, the next thing in order is to seek and 
to find what they signify. 

First of all, the seven sons of Job are the analogues 
in Messianic prophecy of "the seven churches which are 
in Asia," of the book of Revelation. There were lit- 
erally more than seven churches in Asia when Revela- 
tion was written, the number seven signifying the 
seven fold, or entire church of all Christendom. Here 
in Job, wherever the number seven is used, it is as the 



36 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB . 

symbol number of entirety; and never in a single in- 
stance, as a literal number. As applied to the sons of 
Job, it signifies the entire Church of Christ, as descended 
from him. But specifically, the church in its outward, 
organic and militant capacity ; this being wisely and well 
assigned to the masculine gender of the offspring of Job, 
as the builders and organizers and combatants thereof. 

But now, the church with men only for its organ- 
izers, conductors, and members, would never have been 
anything much better than a theological gymnasium, 
with a clerical boxing school attachment thereto. The 
refining, chastening, and spiritualizing presence and in- 
fluence of woman were necessary to its salvation from 
this ; hence, Job c as a type and figure of tKe fatherhood of 
Christ, is given daughters as well as sons. These three 
fair daughters of Job — as fair in old age, as in youth — 
stand together in the drama, for the church-spiritual, 
pure, and perennial, in distinction from the church, out- 
ward, organic and militant, as represented by their seven 
brothers. Together, they are the poet-prophet's triune 
figure for the three graces of the Church of Christ — fair 
Faith, bright Hope, and beautiful Charity. And now 
we see how indispensable to the fullness and finished per- 
fection of his picture of the church it is, that Job should 
have both sons and daughter born unto him — something 
which, as a mere record of a literal fact in the experi- 
ence of a patriarch of the land of Uz, in the long ago, 
could be of no particular interest, use or value to us 
of today. 

The next that we hear of these, now very interest- 
ing young* people^, is in verse 4, where we read : 

And his sons went and feasted in their 

houses, every one his day ; and sent and called 

for their three sisters to eat and to drink with 

them. 

And it is the plain probability that the sons and 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 37 

daughters of the wealthy patriarchs of old occasionally 
came together to feast and make merry in their re- 
spective houses, that is pointed to by the commentators, 
as one of the evidences that the story of Job is one of 
substantial facts throughout; and this, without any per- 
ception of the spiritual and Messianic meaning of these 
circumstances, as made use of here in this verse, even 
though they were actual and real, in and of themselves. 
The Spirit makes use of fact or fable, myth or allegory, 
all with equal facility for its purpose; and we are not 
to be diverted from our study of this ancient document, 
as having Messianic testimony for its whole burden, by 
the discovery that it occasionally makes use of a literal 
fact of ancient history, for an illustrative purpose, as 
here it undoubtedly does. 

What then, is illustrated or signified by this account 
of feasting together in their houses, of the sons of Job, 
and sending and calling for their three sisters to eat and 
to drink with them. It is intended simply and solely, 
for use as a figure for the first organization of the Church 
of Christ on earth, when first the members thereof held 
regular services at stated times in their respective 
churches ; or "in their houses." For the shadow forecast 
of the Christian era in its entirety, which this work in 
its entirety is, lies as yet, in our study of its single 
shadows, over and upon the first few centuries of the 
era. The eating and drinking then, of the sons of Job 
in their houses, is of the bread and wine of the kingdom 
of heaven ; or the celebration of the Christian com- 
munion in the early church. Then, the sending and call- 
ing for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them, 
signifies the always invoked and angelic presences of 
a vital faith, an undying hope, and an all-pervading char- 
ity. Without these, their services had been but empty 
ceremonies, and a mockery of worship. 



38 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Thus, the prophet of the Messiah sets up the. cere- 
monies of the primitive church, in the form of a purely 
spiritualized ritual, in his formula of the sending and 
calling of the sons of Job for their three sisters to eat 
and to drink with them. 

Then, the last that we hear of this first family of the 
sons and daughters of Job, is in the 18th and 19th verses 
of this chapter. Meanwhile, the Sabeans and the Chal- 
deans have raided the flocks and herds of Job, and taken 
them all away, except the sheep, which have been 
burned up by "the fire of God,'' falling on them from 
heaven and consuming them. Four messengers of 
calamity come to Job, each one with his tale of some 
particular disaster, the last one of whom says : 

• Thy sons and thy daughters were eating 

and drinking wine in their eldest brother's 

house : 

And, behold, there came a great wind from 

the wilderness, and smote- the four corners of 
/ the house, and it fell upon the young men, and 

they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to 

tell thee. 

The first thing that we note here, is the absence 
of any allusion to the fate of the young women who 
were in the house when it fell upon the young men, 
before the impact of this four-cornered hurricane, and 
they were dead. No historian would have so far failed 
to satisfy historic and personal interest as to neglect 
all notice of the fate of these young women, whether 
they perished along with their brothers, or escaped with 
their lives. Different translators have observed this 
seeming defect of the record, and sought to remedy it 
by giving different versions of it. The Italian version 
makes it read, "and it fell upon the young persons, 
whence they are dead." The Douay renders it, "and it 
fell upon thy children, and they are dead." These ver- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 39 

sions include the young women with the young men, as 
all dead together. 

The authorized version, here copied from, gives the 
exact and true intent of the original, which is that only 
the sons of Job should perish in the fall of their house, 
while his daughters should live on, though temporarily 
bereft of their house and home. For, after all. inter- 
pretation, in harmony with the whole design of the work, 
is the better test of the correct translation of single 
passages. It has been said before this, that the seven 
stalwart sons of Job represent the Church of Christ, 
specifically in its outward and organic capacities; and 
that his three fair daughters represent the church-spir- 
itual, pure, and perennial; and so, indestructible. 

And now it 'is said here, that it was in fulfillment of 
this prophecy, that the house-organic of Protestant 
Christianity suffered a temporary downfall,, destruction 
and death, in the dark ages of Christian history, or the 
time of the great persecution of all dissenters from the 
teachings and authority of the church of Rome. But the 
life-spiritual, of that dead body, did not perish ; faith, 
hope, and charity, survived its destruction. Therefore 
it is, that the daughters of Job are not killed with his 
sons, in this account of the fall of the house in which 
they were all celebrating together, the communion of 
Christ, when it fell. 

The readers of Christian, and anti-Christian his- 
tory, all know that it was while Protestant congrega- 
tions were holding services in their churches, in many 
instances, that they were assailed, murdered, and their 
buildings burned and destroyed. And it is the complete 
destruction of their body-organic, as a whole,, that is 
here foretold in the prophetic formula of the fall of the 
house of the sons of Job upon them, and they were dead ; 
for though some escaped with their lives, as members 
of an organized body, they were all alike, dead. 



40 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Next, we come to' consider what is meant by their 
eating and drinking together "in their eldest brother's 
house." This is a spiritual application of the ancient 
law of Primogeniture, according to which, the exclusive 
right of inheritance was given to the eldest brother, or 
daughter, of a family of sons and daughters ; and here, 
"their eldest brother's house," is the house of Christ, the 
first begotten of the sons of God. 

If then, the language of the text is all figurative, 
what is signified by the "great wind" that came "from 
the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house." 
And what, by the wilderness itself. The wilderness was 
papal Rome ; and the great wind, was the onrushing, and 
wide sweeping wrath of the papal-Roman hierarchy. 
This, it was, that smote the four corners of the house 
of Protestant Christianity that it fell, and destroyed the 
"martyrs of Jesus," here prefigured as the sons of Job. 
And lastly, what is meant by the smiting of the house 
at its "four corners," is the all around completeness of 
the terrific onslaughts of his enemies upon the citadel 
of Christ. They came from every direction — the north, 
the south, the east, and the west — when at last, Rome 
was alarmed at the widespread, and rapid growth of the 
Protestant "heresy. 5 '' everywhere within her wide do- 
minion, and aroused herself to give the trumpet call to 
all her aids and allies in every quarter thereof, to come 
to arms, and pour in their mercenary hordes from all 
the cardinal points of the compass, upon the doomed 
"eldest brother's house" of the sons and daughters of 
Job. 

And in this way it was, and in no other,, that it was 
smitten at the "four corners," that it fell upon the young 
men, and they were dead, while the daughters — Faith, 
Hope, and Charity — became houseless and homeless 
wanderers upon the earth, with not where to lay their 
head, until the time of the rebuilded church, at the 



•! THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 41 

Reformation, in the 16th century, A. D. This is prefig- 
ured in the restoration of Job to health, with all his lost 
wealth returned to, him, with twice as much as he had 
before. Then, after the account of his redoubled pros- 
perity is rendered in detail, it is added, "He had also 
seven sons and three daughters." And now, the secret 
is out, as to the exact duplication of the first family 
record of Job,, in this second one, where he is given 
identically the same number total of offspring as at first, 
and in the same proportion of the two sexes. It is this : 
both his sons and daughters, and their numbers, signify 
identically the same things here, as there, at the last, as 
at the first ; for this reason only, they are made the same. 
What that significance is, has been told before this, and 
need not be repeated here. 

And now at last, we have the satisfaction of knowing 
the names of these three daughters of Job — a satisfac- 
tion only as we come to know their significance ; for of 
what earthly interest could it be to. us to know what 
names a patriarch of a long past age gave to three 
daughters he happened to have in his old age, except 
only for their significance? And even this, only as it 
may reflect back some light in the office and function 
of these three characters in the sacred drama wherein 
they play a conspicuous part, even from the first to the 
last. 

And he called the name of the first, Je- 

mi-ma ; and the name of the second, Ke-zi-a ; 

and the name of the third, Ker-en-hap-puch. 

As none of the names given to the characters of the 
drama are names of real persons^from that of Job to 
these of his three daughters, but all are selected and 
adapted names — to its spiritual and Messianic purpose 
and meaning, there is something more to do here than to 
pass lightly over these names of the daughters of Job, 
as simply names preferred for them by their sire. That 



42 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

they are significant names, is well known to all scholars 
and critics of the Bible ; also what they signify, in the 
original ; but that they have a special and particular 
meaning and use, as employed here in this place, and at 
this time, is not known nor suspected, to or by any one 
of them all. Yet, such is the case, and necessarily so, 
because we cannot think that God ever inspired the 
mightiest poet and prophet the world had ever seen 
when this book was written, to make a careful copy of 
that part of the family record of a patriarch of Uz, which 
relates only to his three daug'hters, giving the name of 
each in the order of her birth, and omitting the names 
of his seven sons, without some definite and decisive 
purpose in so doing. 

And now that we have come to understand that it is 
not a copied, but a constructed record, by the author 
himself, and that, under divine inspiration and direction, 
it becomes a necessary part of our work to endeavor to 
search out and expound its divine purpose and meaning. 
And to this task we devote such space as may seem nec- 
essary. 

The name of the first born of the daughters of Job, 
or Je-mi-ma, signifies a dove. He is made to call her 
by this name because she is, with her sisters, a wrought 
correspondence to the first born, and later born, daugh- 
ters of Christ. He himself, in Canticles 2:13-14, calls 
them, collectively, as one, his "love," his "fair one," and 
his "dove ;" saying, "Arise, my love, my fair one, and 
come away." And, "O, my dove, that are in the clefts of 
the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy 
countenance, let me hear thy voice: for sweet is thy 
voice, and thy countenance is comely." 

Here, "the stairs" are the scriptures ; "the secret 
places" of the stairs, the hidden problems of scripture; 
"the clefts of the rock," the steps of the stairs, cleft out 
of "the rock" of solid and everlasting truth. With each 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 43 

step surmounted, a problem, that of its secret place, is 
solved. And now, having surmounted the first step in 
this short series of three, the prayer of truth is answered, 
and we see the "comely countenance," and hear the 
"sweet voice" of his beloved, saying, I am she — his love, 
his fair one, and his dove, the harmless, peaceful dove of 
faith in him. 

The next step of the series is to solve the problem, 
in its secret place, of who, or what, Ke-zi-a is. This 
name, in the original, signifies cassia, one of the highly 
perfumed and aromatic herbs or spices of the Orient. It 
is given here as the name of the second daughter of Job, 
in the same symbolical sense as that of his other two 
daughter's ; and signifies the rising, as of "incense," of the 
aspiration of hope. "Let my prayer be set before thee as 
incense," says the psalmist, in his invocation to the Most 
High. And in Revelation 5 :8, the four beasts and four 
and twenty elders fall down before the Lamb, having 
every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, 
which are the prayers of saints. 

This also is a book of Revelation, of identically the 
same things as that of St. John the divine, and by the 
same method — that of type and figure, sign and symbol. 
And here, substantially the same figure as that of the 
golden vials full of odors, is employed, and for iden- 
tically the same things, the prayers of the saints, in giv- 
ing to the second daughter of Job the name of the odor- 
iferous cinnamon tree, or cassia. 

In Canticles, 4, the spiritual graces of the church are 
called by the names of the plants of the orchard and gar- 
den, "spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with 
all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the 
chief spices." Not strange is it then, nor an unheard of 
thing elsewhere, that this prophet of the Messiah should 
make his mouth-piece name one of his daughters after 
one of these "trees of frankincense," the cassia ; especially 



44 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

not so, when we know that the Christ said of himself, "I 
am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley." 

And now we come to consider what is signified by 
the name of the third and last, but not the least, of the 
three daughters of Job, Ker-en-hap-puch. Its signifi- 
cance is that of a paint-horn, or a horn for holding paint. 
And how shall we make the giving of this name to this 
one of the daughters of Job, with this meaning attached 
to it, significant of anything spiritual or Messianic? We 
shall see; the fundamental idea of the use of paint has 
been from the beginning, as that of a beautifier of the 
externals of things. First, there is the use of things; 
then, they must be made as beautiful as possible, in order 
to satisfy the inherent craving of the human mind for 
beauty. God has set the example for this, in that "He 
hath made everything beautiful in his time." He has 
painted the sky blue ( , and the grass green, in its season; 
and while he might have made everything plain, has 
adorned the world with all its beautiful and variegated 
colors, from "the deluge rainbow, heaven wrought," 
down to the wild violet in the woods, children sought. 

Then, in the Scriptures, the idea of ornament and 
beauty is carried into spiritual things, "the ornament of 
a meek and quiet spirit," and the worship of God, "in the 
beauty of holiness." All the poetry of the Bible is the 
painting of the Spirit — making truths as beautiful as true 
— the paint horn of the Spirit never running dry. There, 
the queen of heaven stands "in gold of Ophir." And 
there, "the king's daughter" is not only "all glorious 
within," but her clothing without, "is of wrought gold." 
And "she shall be brought unto the king in raiment of 
needlework." All of this, and all that is like unto it in 
Scripture, is from the paint horn of the Spirit. Ker-en- 
hap-puch is the king's daughter; and while all the gar- 
ments of her sister, Ke-zi-a, "smell of myrrh, aloes., and 
cassia," as said in Psalms, of the same, and in token of 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 45 

the incense of prayer and of praise, she is clothed in the 
colors and shades of the wrought gold of all enduring, 
long suffering, and sin-covering Charity. She is the last, 
but not the least, of the three daughters of Job ; for "the 
end of the commandment is charity." 

And now abideth these three — Jemima^ Kezia, Ker- 
enhappuch, on the page of the inspired Word of God — 
not as the names of the three daughters of a patriarch of 
the land of Uz, who never had existence, as such, but as 
constructed types and figures in Messianic prophecy, of 
the three crowning graces of Christian character — : Faith, 
Hope, Charity. 

Next, and last of these, we read : 

And in all the land were no women found so 
fair as the daughters of Job : and their father 
gave them inheritance among their brethren. 

And we are to believe, according to the dictum of 
the schoolmen, that long ages ago, God inspired a great 
poet and prophet to place it on record for the information 
of all future generations, that the three daughters of one 
of the patriarchs of that period, or how long previous 
thereto, no one knows, were the handsomest women in 
all that part of the country where they lived? And this 
without any comment or side-light on the subject to give 
any significance other than as the record of a simple, lit- 
eral fact ! To accept this as true would be to belittle 
and degrade our concept of this part of the Word of God, 
down to the level of an extract from the society notes of 
one of the fashionable ladies' journals of today. 

But now, with our assured knowledge and under- 
standing of who, and what, the daughters of Job are de- 
signed to represent, this otherwise insignificant, and of 
itself,, utterly valueless bit of information, looms up into 
the grandeur of a divine valuation of the difference be- 
tween mere physical beauty of face or figure, and that 



46 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

immortal beauty, and fadeless bloom of the eternal youth 
of the daughters of Christ. 

And now this itself becomes the fairest and finest 
stroke of his prophet's pen in all the Book of Job : And 
in all the land were no women found so fair as the 
daughters of Job. For in all the land of immortal souls, 
which is the true land of his dream, what is there found 
so fair as Faith, or so bright as Hope, or so beautiful as 
Charity. 

Lastly, we come to consider what is signified by 
their father giving them inheritance among their breth- 
ren. It follows from all that has gone before, that this 
has no reference to property-giving, or inheriting. Types 
and figures of prophecy do not give nor inherit property, 
except typically and figuratively. It has been briefly 
indicated in the foregone table of correspondences, that 
this is significant of the doing away in Christ, of the old 
distinction betwixt male and female. The older religions 
drew a sharp and deep distinction between man and 
woman, cutting down from the moral and spiritual, 
through all the relations of life, political, civil, social and 
personal. In all these,, woman was relegated to the place 
of servitude and subjectivity to man. She had no rights 
other than such as were accorded to her for his own use 
and convenience, by her lord and master, man. The 
Brahman Bible tells us that "a woman is never fit for in- 
dependence," and "if a wife speak unkindly to her hus- 
band she may be superseded by another at once." On 
the other hand, it leaves her husband free to speak as 
unkindly as he pleases to his wife, without any pre- 
scribed penalty. In India, it had always been, under 
both Brahmanism and Buddhism, one of their religious 
customs to burn widows alive on the funereal pyre of 
their deceased husbands, until it was banished by a 
Christian nation, the English, coming into control. But 
it was never heard of that a widower was burned alive 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 47 

or dead, in honor of his deceased wife ; she would not 
be worth the kindling wood, let alone a life. In China, 
under Confucianism, and before, the birth of a male 
child was hailed as a benediction from heaven, while 
that of a female, was put up with, as the infliction of a 
necessary evil — until Christian missionaries came and 
taught them that a girl baby was as likely to develop 
into something human, as though she had happened to 
be a boy. 

In short, it has been reserved to Christianity to in- 
augurate and carry on the now world-wide movement 
for the emancipation of womankind from the thraldom 
in which it has been from the beginning until now. And 
it is this elevation and broadening of the status of 
woman, up to, and out to, an equality with that of man, 
in all matters religious, political, civic and economic, so 
far as rights and privileges therein are concerned, that 
the giving of an inheritance to the daughters of Job, 
among' their brethren, by their father, is the shadow 
forecast in this ancient piece of pure Messianic sym- 
bology, that is/ called the Book of Job. For here and 
now, in this last chapter of the book, as well as for some 
time previous, some of the things pertaining to our own 
immediate time, today, are treated of and foretold under 
appropriate figures. And this emancipation of woman 
from the bondage imposed upon her by the heathen 
religions, and crude civilizations and customs of an old 
and effete past, is one of those things. And what more 
apt and appropriate figure could there have been chosen 
than this, for its purpose, of the giving of an inherit- 
ance among their brethren, to the daughters of Job — 
himself but a figure and prototype of the all-emancipat- 
ing Christ to come? 

Next, we note significance of the fact that the sons 
of Job receive an inheritance among- their sisters, as 
well as they among their brethren. This must needs be 



48 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

of the same kind and character as that of their sisters ; 
and what it means, is the emancipation of man from the 
slavery of his tyranny over his weaker sister woman, 
at the same time when she shall be emancipated from 
it; for the tyrant is but a larger slave than his subject — 
a slave to his system of false belief and practice, and 
needs emancipation from it, as much as does his victim ; 
for he is equally its victim with all the rest. And this 
inheritance of the riches of their father, Job, by his sons 
and daughters, all alike, is simply and only significant 
of the full and equal inheritance at last, of all human 
rights and privileges, by all the sons and daughters of 
Christ — in whom, as there is "neither Jew nor Greek," 
so there is "neither male nor female," but all are "one 
in Christ Jesus." 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Flocks and Herds of Job — A Messianic 
Service Table. 

"Ye daughters of Zion, declare have you seen 
The Star that on Israel shone? 
Say if in your tents my Beloved has been, 
Or where with his flocks he is gone." 

"His substance also was seven thousand 
sheep, and three thousand camels, and five 
hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she 
asses, and a very great household ; so that this 
man was the greatest of all the men of the 
east."— Job, 1 :3. 



The Sheep of Job — Sheep of the Shepherd of Men. 

Throughout the Bible, both Old and New Testa- 
ments, the sheep is the preferred and chosen symbol of 
gentleness and docility. It is an old simile, and as apt 
as it is old. In Psalm 10:3, we read: "... We 
are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." And in 
Ezekiel, 34:31: 

"And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, 
are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord 
God." 



50 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

In many other prophecies of Christ he is called 
the Shepherd of the sheep. It was also a favorite simile 
with, the Christ himself for his spiritual flock, and for 
himself as their Shepherd. In John 10:14, he says, "I 
am the good shepherd." In John 10:15,-" 
and I lay down my life for the sheep." Here in this 
oldest and obscurest of all the Messianic prophecies, 
the sheep of Christ are called the "substance" of Job, 
because the sheep of Christ are the substance of his 
wealth, as the Shepherd of Souls. And they are given 
first place in this inventory of the living wealth of this 
patriarchal figure of the Christ to come, not by acci- 
dent, but by design; for the prime object of the Shep- 
herd of souls was to be, was, and is, first, last, and al- 
ways, Sheep. Everything else is subservient to this 
primal purpose. 

Therefore it is that in this old Messianic service 
table — for this only is what it is — the sheep of Job are 
given, not only first place in the tabulation, but the 
highest number of all his flocks and herds, or seven 
thousand ; this being' a symbolical number for the full- 
ness of the flock of Christ. Seven thousand is the dom- 
inant number of all the other numbers of the herds of 
Job, and includes them all in itself; for these also are 
"sheep," in the generic sense of the term, and are given 
special and distinct names and numbers only to indi- 
cate the special and distinct kinds and grades of service 
which each kind performs for the Shepherd of them all. 
Some of the sheep of Christ serve him in one capacity, 
and others in other capacities ; yet they are all so many 
different species of the same genu's, sheep. Here in this 
list of the divisions and subdivisions of Messianic serv- 
ice, some of the servitors of Christ are called camels ; 
others, oxen; and still others, she asses. Each kind is 
named and numbered according to the kind and quality 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 51 

of the service it performs in the economy of the whole 
service of the Master. 

The sheep, as such, are assigned to no special serv- 
ice, for the reason that they represent the entirety of 
the flock of Christ, including every kind, and all quali- 
ties and grades of service to their Shepherd, in the name 
Sheep, and in the number seven thousand. As the sheep 
of Christ, they may be lying down in ". . * green 
pastures," or walking under his leadership, ". 
beside the still waters" of the summer land of the soul; 
while as the camels of Christ, they must be transporting 
the tidings of his salvation across the outer and arid 
deserts of the winter-land of the world, and all at one 
and the same time. Or as the oxen of Christ, they must 
be ploughers of the soil of the Word in the home fields. 
Yet, wherever they go, or wherever they stay, or in 
whatever capacity they may be called to labor for the 
Master, they are of the Seven Thousand, the sheep of 
His Fold. 



The Camels of Job — Camels of the Caravan of Christ. 

"The multitude of camels shall cover thee, 
the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah ; all they 
from Sheba shall come : they shall bring gold 
and incense ; and they shall show forth the 
praises of the Lord." — Isaiah, 60:6. 

Obviously enough the words, "camels" and "drome- 
daries," as used in this glowing description by the 
prophet Isaiah, of "The glory of the church in the 
abundant access of the Gentiles," have no reference to 
those animals except as figures of something in the 
church, which they are used to represent ; for these are 
they who "shall show forth the praises of the Lord." 
They are the travellers and transporters of the tidings 



52 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

of the Gospel to the Gentiles. And it is the same with 
the camels of Job ; as he is, in figure, the Christ, so they, 
in another figure, are the missionaries of Christ. 

At the date of the writing of this book, the camel 
was the main reliance of the land-commerce of the then 
civilized world ; it was "the ship of the desert," having 
for side ports the oases rising like evergreen isles out of 
the eternal sea of the desert, furling sail to take in the 
waters of their pellucid springs. The patience* and long 
endurance of the camel, added to its speed and strength, 
made it a model of, and a simile for, qualities of the 
same kind in men. And it was from these circum- 
stances and conditions that the inspired penman of Job 
derived the figure of the camels of the patriarch, as that 
of the foreign missionaries of Christ and his cause. 

These, it was foreseen, were to need, and to pos- 
sess, patience, fortitude, and the power of long endur- 
ance of hardship in a supereminent degree. And now 
the all-around excellence, and the special aptness of the 
figure are clearly seen as soon as it is seen of what it 
is a figure. Nothing then or now in existence could 
have afforded, or could now afford so perfect a simile of 
the Christian missionary to distant lands and foreign 
peoples across the moral and spiritual deserts of the 
world, as the patient camel, plodding his weary way 
across the burning sands below, and beneath the heated 
and glowing arch above, to that distant port where 
whatever of treasure his pack contains is to be unpacked 
and exchanged for other treasure to be brought back 
to the master of the caravan. 

Even so, the camels of the caravan of Christ went 
forth from the beginning, and still go forth from friends 
and homes and native lands, into the desert realms of 
ignorance and darkness of the earth, laden with the 
priceless treasures of light and knowledge of the "way" 
and of the "truth" and the "life" of him who was and is 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 53 

the Light of the world. To these, the Almighty's out- 
stretched wing is like "the shade of Elim's Palm beside 
her desert spring," to the worn and weary camel bands 
of the desert. In every particular throughout, the cor- 
respondence is perfect and complete. 

What then, seeing that the camels of Job are, in 
prophetic type and figure, the missionaries of Christ, is 
the significance of their number, three thousand? If 
this camel band of the patriarch's is a representative one 
as to its name, which it most assuredly is, it follows 
that it is the same, as to its number; and so it is. Like 
the numbers of all the others of the flocks and herds of 
the man of Uz, the number of his camels is a symbolical 
number, standing for no mere numerical quantity what- 
ever, but for the state and quality of the thing repre- 
sented. The initial number, three, signifies the same 
as in the number of the daughters of the parent figure 
of all, which is their State; while the affix of three 
ciphers is of their Quality, or of the same, in a greater 
degree. All together, the three thousand number of the 
camel-figure of the Christian propaganda, signifies Full- 
ness, and Expansion. 

Finally, this triune band of carriers of the home 
produce of the patriarch Job to distant ports, is made 
up out of the same original seven sons and three daugh- 
ters of the same, now gone forth under the figure of 
"camels" to carry the Gospel of the Kingdom "to 
earth's remotest bound," and from thence to bring other 
sheep into the fold of Christ, until at last they are all 
gathered in, as foretold in the further prophecy of 
Isaiah : 

"All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered 
together unto thee, the rams of Ne bai oth shall 
minister unto thee : they shall come up with ac- 
ceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the 
house of my glory." 



54 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

The Oxen of Job — Yoke Fellows in Christ. 

In his first Epistle to the Corinthians, ninth chap- 
ter, ninth and tenth verses, Paul says : 

"For it is written in the law of Moses, 
thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that 
treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for 
oxen? 

"Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? 
For our sakes, no doubt, this is written : that 
he that ploweth should plow in hope ; and that 
he that thresheth in hope, should be partaker 
of his hope." 

So we may ask here : Doth God take such care for 
oxen that he should take so much pains to tell us in 
his Word that anciently in the land of Uz there lived 
a man whose name was Job, and that this man used 
oxen to do his plowing with ; and then, precisely how 
many head, or "yoke," of such working cattle he had in 
his possession and employ at this kind of work? Or 
says he this altogether for our instruction in things of 
more importance than working oxen or plowed ground? 
"For our sakes, no doubt, this is written," that we who 
plow the soil of the letter of this Word of God shall 
plow in hope, the hope of getting something out of it of 
greater value than a verse of copied statistics from the 
herd book of a sheep and cattle king of the land of Uz, 
in ancient times, and which, so far in the history of 
commentary on the subject, is all we have ever gotten 
out of it. 

And now, if we are correct in our interpretation of 
this carefully tabulated account of the live stock pos- 
sessions of the patriarch Job, as that of a service-table 
in which the servitors of Christ are arranged in the or- 
der of the importance and rank of their service to the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 55 

Master and his cause, and of the camels, as representa- 
tive of the foreign missionary phase of this service, then 
what is signified by the "oxen" becomes easy of dis- 
cernment. They can signify nothing more, nor less, 
than the stay-at-home contingent of the service, the 
sturdy plowers of the home fields already conquered 
and consecrated to Christ. In a word, they are the local 
Pastors of the entire local pastorates of Christendom, 
working together side by side as "yoke fellows in 
Christ." 

From Genesis almost to Revelation, the yoke of 
the ox and the bullock is used in the scriptures as a 
figure for, either the accepted and willing service 'of man 
to his Maker, or for enforced, or willing bondage to 
sin, or some earthly master. 

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; 
for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, 
and my burden is light."— Matt. 11:29, 30. 

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty where- 
with Christ hath made us free, and be not en- 
tangled again with the yoke of bondage." — Ga- 
latians 5 :1. 

These two examples, including the two phases of 
the figure of the "yoke," illustrate its use throughout 
the scriptures. And wherever in them the word yoke 
is used, it is always for a representative purpose, and in 
the sense of a symbol, and never is limited to the literal 
sense of the word. Here, the ". . . five hundred 
yoke of oxen" of Job, signifies this : First the number 
five hundred stands for All. Next, the word "yoke" 
means a Common Bond of Fellowship. Then, "oxen" 
signifies Servitors ; specifically, servants of Christ. Alto- 
gether, all of the servants of Christ, yoked together in 



56 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

one common bond of fellowship in Him. As an index to 
rank or kind of service performed, as distinguished from 
all other ranks or kinds, it points to the local pastorate, 
or home service of his ministers, as distinguished from 
the foreign missionary service, represented by "camels." 
This figure of the oxen, equally with that of the 
camels, is one of an all-round excellence for its whole 
purpose, and of particular aptness at every minor point 
of the whole correspondence. For just as no other 
member of the entire animal kingdom could have been 
found so admirably adapted and chosen to represent the 
foreign missionary as the patient and plodding camel, 
so again, no other living creature could have been se- 
lected and found so perfectly fitted for use as a symbol 
for the home pastor, as the strong, sturdy, and home- 
staying ox. The next and last group of figures in this 
great Messianic service-table, is that of the "she asses." 
As the sheep are with perfect propriety placed at the 
head of the table, as presiding over, and including its 
entire contents, so this humblest and lowliest of all the 
flocks and herds of the patriarch, are with equal pro- 
priety, placed at its foot, and given the lowest number 
of them all. 



« 
The She Asses of Job — Gross Burden Bearers of the 

Lord. 

The first notable thing here, is that while nothing 
is said as to the gender of any of the" others of the do- 
mestic animals which help to make up the whole of the 
"substance" of Job, when it comes to the last and lowest 
in rank of service to' their master, they are all females. 
Why are pains taken to inform us of this fact when, as 
a mere item from the inventory of the live stock riches 
of a sheep and cattle man of Uz in the long ago, it 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 57 

would have served every purpose to have said that one 
of his herds consisted of five hundred asses, without 
any reference to the sex of the animals? "O," replies 
the literalist, "it would be only natural, or probable, 
that the great majority of a herd of domestic animals 
should be females; and the historian has simply con- 
formed with the known facts in all such instances." 

But it would be quite as natural, or probable, that 
the great majority of a flock of sheep would be females, 
or of a herd of camels the same. Yet the "historian" 
has not told us that Job had 7,000 ewes, nor that he was 
the owner of 3,000 she camels. If the point in question 
is of any importance in this instance, why is it not of 
equal importance in those other two instances? And , 
why has not the "historian" conformed to the known 
facts there, as well as here? The Chaldee kindly in- 
forms us that while Job kept his 500 yoke of oxen 
strictly to himself for his own use, the 500 she asses 
"belonged to his wife." Then the individual commen- 
tators shed refulgent light on the subject in the informa- 
tion that these animals were kept as much for their milk 
as for bearing other burdens. If so, and who shall dare 
dispute it, what a host of milkmaids Mrs. Job must 
have had to have milked her 500 she asses, twice, or 
even once a day. Did they stand up, or sit down to 
milk them ; and about how much milk did the average 
ass give down per diem in those milk and honey days 
of old? Endless are the possibilities of speculation on 
this enchanting theme, and as valueless as endless, so 
long as followed up along the regular commentatorial 
lines, of which the last half dozen of these are fair speci- 
mens. 

From time immemorial until now, the domesticated 
ass has been assigned to the lowest place, and given to 
perform the most menial tasks of all beasts of burden or 
carriage in the service of man. It was forbidden by 



58 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the law of Moses to plow with an ox and an ass yoked 
together; it was an unequal mating, and a disgrace to 
the ox. See Deuteronomy 22:10. And when Jacob 
called his twelve sons together to cast for each one of 
them the horoscope of his future destiny, he named five 
of them after as many different members of the animal 
kingdom ; " Judah is a lion's whelp" — born to reign and 
bear the sceptre. But when he came to the one to 
whom he sought to assign the lowest place of all, he 
said: "Is sa char is a strong ass, couching down be- 
tween two burdens ... he bowed his shoulder to 
bear, and became a servant unto tribute." Throughout 
the scriptures the ass is a chosen symbol for the lowest 
forms and grades of servitude. 

And it is in this sense, and for this purpose, that 
this group of Messianic service-figures is used and 
placed at the foot of this constructed and graded serv- 
ice-table — to represent the lowest grade and most menial 
form of service to the Master. Their number, 500, stands 
for the same as the 500 number of the yoke of his oxen, 
or All the servitors of Christ, in the lowest grades and 
capacities of that service, quite indispensable, and 
wholly acceptable, as they are, to him. Not all of 
Chrises servants can serve him in the capacity of or- 
dained ministers of his gospel; neither can all serve him 
as travelling missionaries of his cause. Yet such of them 
as are not called up to the higher ranks and grades of 
his service may serve him in humbler capacities, such as 
their education, circumstances, and all-round conditions, 
qualify and fit them for. And it is of this class of the 
servitors of Christ that the "she asses" of Job are the 
chosen symbol in this purely symbolical inventory and 
tabulation of his living wealth, or "substance," as it is 
called in the text. 

And they are called "she asses," not because such 
"were kept, partly for bearing burdens, and partly for 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 59 

their milk," as the regular professors of scripture exe- 
gesis tell us they were, for here the Spirit of Prophecy 
is not entering into the practical details of the domestic 
economy of the patriarch Job — who never existed at all, 
as such, nor owned any number of sheep, great or small, 
nor cattle of any kind or class whatever — but because 
this part of the figure was derived from the ancient cus- 
tom of choosing only the finest and noblest specimens 
of the males of the ass tribe for carriage driving, or spec- 
tacular occasions of any kind, while to the females was 
consigned the coarser tasks of common labor exclusively. 
This completes and perfects the figure of the "she asses" 
of Job, as that of the laboring classes in the lowliest and 
humblest capacities of the cause of Christ. 

That Martha, of whom we read in the New Testa- 
ment, that she was much cumbered about serving in the 
capacity of housekeeper, so much so that she had little 
time to sit at Jesus' feet and listen to his words, was one 
of this class. Martha was a "she ass," within the mean- 
ing of the words as used here in Job; not in any hu- 
miliating - , or morally degrading sense of the term, but 
in the sense of serving the Master in the way of minis- 
tering to his need in the lowliest capacity. So were 
those other women whose service was that they ". . , 
ministered unto him of their substance." Mary, the 
sister of Martha, was a "sheep" in the strictest sense of 
the term, who loved best of all to sit at his feet and 
listen to the voice of the Shepherd of her Soul. "They 
also serve, who' only stand and wait." But there are 
always more Marthas than Marys in the service of the 
Master ; and they are not all of them women, by any 
means ; and these are all working with willing hands, 
and with willing feet, running ". • . on errands of 
the Paraclete." 

The church-spiritual has a body-material, which must 
needs be ministered unto ; and those whose ministry 



60 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

thereto is mainly of their "substance," in its upbuilding 
and maintenance, are they whose services are here pre- 
indicated as those of the "she asses" of Job. It is also 
here preindicated that : 

They serve him well, if not the best, 

Who till the field, or build the town, 

As for his glory and renown. 

Who civilize the savage lands, 

With substance fill his empty hands. 

Who hew the wood to rear the dome 

For household worship here at home. 

Who steer the ship, or train the steed, 

That make for power and for speed, 

To bear to other lands afar, 

The message of the Morning Star. 

Who mould the brick or mix the clay 

To build the temples of today. 

Who push the barrow, ply the broom,- 

To build the house or sweep the room 

Where Christ may come to be a guest. 

These serve him all — have their reward — 

Gross burden bearers of the Lord. 



CHAPTER VII. 
The Sons of God— Offspring of Christ. 

"Behold, what manner of love the Father 
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called 
the sons of God : therefore the world knoweth 
us not, because it knew him not." — I John, 3:1. 

In the sixth verse of the first chapter of the book, 
we read as follows : 

"Now there was a day when the sons of 
God came to present themselves before the 
Lord, and Satan came also among them." 

From the beginning, until now, the narrative has 
been all of that exceeding naturalness and simplicity of 
occurrence and statement which have deceived many, 
doubtless of "the very elect," even, and misled them into 
accepting it all for what it appears to be, on the face of 
it, a simple and unaffected narrative of the circum- 
stances and experiences of a patriarch of the land of Uz 
in the long ago. But now, and here, we are suddenly 
confronted with something which is admitted on all 
hands to be out of the ordinary, so far as to call for ex- 
planation. Yet none of the critics of Job have ever 
answered the call in a way to satisfy even themselves. 
Clarke, in his commentary on this verse, admits himself 
baffled, and says, "All the versions, and indeed all the 
critics, are puzzled with the phrase, sons of God. . . . 



62 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

The Septuagint, "the angels of God." The Chaldee, 
"troops of angels." Coverdale translates it, "serbauntes 
of God." Then he tells us what the Arabic, the Syriac, 
and all the others ics and acs have to say on the subject, 
and to no purpose, and says for himself : "But what 
are we to make of this whole account? Expositions are 
endless." 

The questions which have for so long puzzled all 
the versions and all the critics, are : Who are these 
mysterious "sons of God?" When, and where did they 
come to present themselves before the Lord? Was it on 
earth, or in heaven? And for what special purpose was 
their presentation of themselves before the Lord? The 
whole mystery of this most mysterious passage — to the 
critics and commentators — has arisen, first, from treat- 
ing it as an historic account of a past transpired event — ■ 
which it is not — and from the lack of that divine, Mes- 
sianic idea which governs and illumines all from first to 
last, for their light and guide; and last, from the lack 
of an adequate method of interpretation. With that idea 
to govern, and that method to guide, the mystery is 
easily and quickly cleared up, and the whole meaning of 
the passage made plain. 

Here in this ancient piece of Messianic prophecy 
these mystical "sons of God" are so called in prophetic 
correspondence to the spiritually begotten offspring of 
the Christ to come. And their coming "to present them- 
selves before the Lord" signifies prophetically, the first 
assemblages of the primitive Christian church for the 
worship of the Lord. And these are they of whom John 
speaks in the passage from his first epistle, quoted at 
the head of this chapter, as "called the sons of God." 
Then, in the eleventh and twelfth verses of the first 
chapter of John's gospel, he says of the Christ : 

"He came unto his own, and his own re- 
ceived him not. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 63 

"But as many as received him, to them 
gave he power to become the sons of God, even 
to them that believe on his name." 

Then Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians, 4:4, 5, 6, 
shows who are sons of God : 

"But when the fullness of the time was 
come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, 
made under the law, 

"To redeem them that were under the law, 
that we might receive the adoption of sons." 

And in Hosea, 1:10, of Israel: 

". . . And it shall come to pass that in 
the place where it was said unto them, Ye are 
not my people, there it shall be said unto them, 
Ye are the sons of the living God." 

Thus it is seen that it has never been necessary to 
go outside of the scriptures themselves to learn who are 
meant by "the sons of God," in this passage from Job, as 
well as who are not meant — not some "supernatural or- 
der of beings," nor yet "troops of angels," but simply 
those who had received, or were yet to receive, "the 
adoption of sons" into the family of the living God, by 
believing on the name of his Son Jesus Christ. Simply 
this, only this, and nothing more, nor less, than this, is 
what is meant in this sore puzzling text — to "All the 
versions, and all the critics," all through the centuries 
of versipn and criticism thereof and thereupon. Who 
"the sons of God" were, and are ; when, and where, they 
"came to present themselves before the Lord;" and in 
what way and manner this w r as done, are now, in the 
light of the Messianic idea and meaning of it all, easy 
questions for anyone to answer. 

As to what is signified by the coming also among 
them of an Evil Spirit, called "Satan," and how and in 



64 THE NEW BOOK OB JOB 

what way he came among them, and what he accom- 
plished after his coming in the midst of them, these are 
things reserved for treatment in a future chapter. And 
as for the ''day" when these things came to pass, it was 
the first day of the Messianic Creation of "a new heaven 
and a new earth"— or that first distinct period of Chris- 
tian history during which Christianity took on the form 
of an organization and began to assemble itself in con- 
gregations for religious exercises and devotions ; or "to 
present themselves before the Lord." That new organ- 
ization was the "new earth" of Revelation 21:1. And 
as organization, or Body, versus Soul, is Satan's strong- 
hold, he quickly "came also among them." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Satan of the Drama — A Personification of Evil. 

"To suppose that among the almost count- 
less personifications in the scriptures, evil, the 
greatest adversary, enemy, and accuser of man, 
is not personified, is worse than idle." — Hal- 
stead. 

We are now to take up and consider what follows as 
a consequence of the coming- of Satan among the sons 
of God, in this first account thereof, there being two 
such accounts. 

"And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence 
comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, 
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, 
and from walking up and down in it." 

This peremptory challenge of the Lord to Satan to 
answer from whence he comes, while it was never given 
in so many audibly spoken words, is nevertheless of the 
deepest significance as referring prophetically to that fu- 
ture judgment of the world and its prince, the devil, 
when he should come who was to come, and who said, 
when he was come : 

"Now is the judgment of this world : now 
shall the prince of this world be cast out." 



66 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Hitherto "Satan" had things pretty much to his own 
liking — for convenience sake we speak of this personifi- 
cation of the spirit of evil in man, as of a real and per- 
sonal entity. He had become "the prince of this world." 
But now that he was come, into whose power the Fa- 
ther had committed the judgment of this world, its 
hitherto unchallenged prince must give an account of 
himself; must answer whence he comes. And in scrip- 
ture symbology, the place where one abides, or from 
whence he comes, is his sphere of influence ; it is his 
character, localized. One who comes from heaven, needs 
no other credential than that of coming from heaven. 
As good fruit comes from a good tree, and evil fruit from 
an evil tree, so a good spirit comes from a good place 
or sphere, and an evil spirit from the place of evil. Hence 
this tersest of formulas, "Whence comest thou?" as from, 
the Lord, to Satan, becomes at once a supreme test of 
the character and mission of him to whom it is ad- 
dressed, and the prince of this world is already judged, 
according as his answer shall be : this, by the way, being 
one of the most powerfully condensed formulas of 
Christie and Anti-Christie prophecy to be found in the 
entire piece of work. 

"From going to and fro in the earth, and from walk- 
ing up and down in it," here signifies, not the peregrina- 
tions of a person, called "Satan," here and there upon 
the outer and material earth, but the going to and fro of 
the spirit of evil "in the earth" of the earthly heart and 
mind of man, from one point of vantage to another ; and 
"walking up and down in it," is simply a poetic phrasing 
for the unresting and ceaseless activity of evil in the 
universal and unregenerate human heart; for this great 
prophecy is embodied in equally great poetry in every 
part. Here, it is of the vastness and universality of the 
covered domain of Satan in the earth, at the advent of 
Christ. Darkness covered the earth, "and gross dark- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 67 

ness the people." The ends of the earth were the only 
limits to the going to and fro of Satan in it; and its 
width, the only bound of his walking up and down in 
its ways, under cover of the prevailing and world-wide 
darkness. 

But now, the Light of the world was come, and the 
prince of the powers of darkness was judged. And this 
is a foreshadowing of his judgment ; for specifically, 
and in point of time, we are here in this account of the 
coming of Satan among the sons of God, and of the chal- 
lenge of the Lord to answer from whence he comes, 
brought down to the time of the first assemblages of the 
disciples of Christ in a body together to listen to his 
teaching. This is the first small historic correspondence 
to this prophetic account of the coming together of the 
sons of God to present themselves before the Lord. 
Then, the coming among the disciples of Jesus, the 
Christ, of Judas, the traitor, as one of the Twelve, is the 
first historic correspondence in a comparatively small 
way, to this coming of Satan among the sons of God. 
"Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a 
devil?" said Jesus to his disciples. It is immaterial to 
the present issue that Jesus knew Judas to be a devil 
when he chose him to come among the twelve, "that the 
scripture might be fulfilled, . . ." as he himself 
said ; this scripture now before us, for one example oi 
that kind of prophecy ; it is sufficient for the present pur- 
pose, that Judas was among the twelve, as a Satan 
among the Sons of God, and that we have found a sat- 
isfyingly clear correspondence in Christian history to 
this ancient formula of Messianic prophecy, even at its 
very beginning. 

"And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou 
considered my servant Job, that there is none 
like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright 
man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil ?" 



68 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

Here these words of the Lord, to Satan, Hast thou 
considered my servant Job, are the prophetic- equivalent 
of the now historic Avords of Jesus, to the Pharisees of 
his time, 

"Saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose 
son is he?" 

These are they to whom he said: 

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the 
lusts of your father ye will do . ." 

And these are the "Satan" of the text, to whom 
these 'words of the Lord are dramatically addressed- — not 
literally and orally spoken. At the time of the advent 
of Jesus, as the Christ, and afterward when the noise of 
his fame began to be spread abroad in the world, this 
became the burning question of the time : What think 
ye of him who is called Christ? Have ye considered 
him, that he is that perfect and upright man, insomuch 
that there is none like him in the earth, that he is pro- 
claimed to be? What think ye of his claim to be the 
long promised and prophesied Messiah? This, only this, 
is what is here preindicated as one of the Providential 
outcomes of the advent of such an one as the Christ of 
God among men in the world ; and that in the chosen 
form of spoken Avords of the Lord, to Satan : 

"Then Satan ansAvered the Lord, and sajth, 
Doth Job fear God for nought? 

"Hast thou not made an hedge about him, 
and about his house, and about all that he hath 
on every side? 

"Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, 
and his substance is increased in the land. 

"But put forth thine hand now, and touch 
all that he hath, and he Avill curse thee to thy 
face." 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 69 

This argument of Satan, that Job does not serve 
God for nought, but from a mercenary motive, and for 
the sake of worldly advantage, and that if the Lord will 
take from him all of the great wealth that he has gained 
in the service of God, he will curse him to his face, is 
precisely the argument of the enemies of Christ, and op- 
posers of Christianity, when it was seen that he was fast 
growing in favor with the masses of the people, that God 
had made, as it were, an hedge about him, and about his 
house, and about all that he had on every side, that God 
had blessed the work of his hands in healing the sick, 
casting out devils, and raising the dead, and that his 
"substance" was daily and hourly being increased in the 
land. 

This was what alarmed and aroused the powers that 
were, both of State and Church. Just what the Roman 
government feared most was that Jesus did not serve 
God for nought. He was a Jew by birth, and his fellow 
countrymen, the Jews, were groaning under the heavy 
yoke of bondage to Rome. What with these circum- 
stances, and his rapidly growing power with the people, 
how long might it be before he would be able to rally 
to his standard a vast army of men and take the field for 
their deliverance from their hated oppressors. Then, the 
heads of the Pagan religions were being hurt in their 
livings; as many of their subjects as became converted 
to Christianity ceased to contribute to their support. 
This was a dangerous man ; he claimed to be the Son 
and servant of God, and a friend of the poor and needy 
everywhere ; and these were in a vast majority of the 
people. Something must be done to suppress him, and 
that quickly. 

And the first and most essential thing to he done 
was to expose to ridicule and contempt his claim to be a 
savior of man, and a servant of God. Hence it was, that 
from the hoarse voiced Roman populace, from the dog- 



70 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

mouthed priests of the heathen temples around, and 
from the scorn-curled lips of the Christ-hating Jews, 
there arose to heaven a simultaneous cry, 

. "As all the fiends from heaven that fell 
Had raised the banner cry of hell," 

Doth Jesus serve God for nought? Let us now destroy 
all that he has done, "touch all that he hath," and he 
will curse his God to his face. 

In this way it was, and in this way only, that Satan 
answered the Lord. Doth Job serve God for nought? 
To suppose that Satan ever actually spoke these words 
to the Lord, in a voice audible to the ear of man, would 
be to class ourselves in understanding with the small 
boy who has just learned to read, and believes every- 
thing just as it reads in his book — a parable or a poem, 
though it may be, even as this is, both in one. 

And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all 
that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself 
put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth 
from the presence of the Lord. 

The notable thing here is, that while Satan now 
has permission from the Lord to take all that Job has, 
him, he must not touch, as to his person. That is some- 
thing yet to come. This corresponds prophetically to 
the now historic process at first resorted to by the ene- 
mies of Christ to put a stop to the spread of Christianity 
upon the earth. For while there had been occasional 
killings of Christians from the first, for some time, the 
main reliance of their enemies was on the taking from 
them what they had. This, they thought, Satan-like, 
would be enough to cause them to forswear their alle- 
giance to Christ; or in the sententious language of the 
text, to curse God to his face. 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 71 

But instead of this, they "took joyfully the spoiling 
of their goods," knowing that they had "in heaven a 
better and an enduring substance," as says Paul, of those 
Christians who had suffered the loss of their goods for 
Christ's sake. And so it was, that just as Satan's argu- 
ment against Job failed and came to nought — for Job, 
as the sequel shows, instead of cursing God to his face 
for taking away his wealth, blessed God, saying: The 
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be 
the name of the Lord — so the Satanic policy of the con- 
fiscation and destruction of Christian property proved 
an utter failure, not only, but redounded to the glory 
of God, in that the so persecuted followers of Christ, 
blessed God, that he had counted them worthy to suf- 
fer such things for his Son's sake. 

And it is this first large form of Christian martyr- 
dom that is foreshadowed in the taking away of the sub- 
stance of Job, by the Lord, at the instigation of Satan, 
together with its result, which is precisely the same in 
Christian history as it is here in Messianic prophecy, 
of the same, which this is. 

For Job, in his persecutions and afflictions, and in 
the way in which he endures them, represents not only 
the "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," in his 
own person and experience in the world, but also in the 
body of his persecuted and afflicted people in after cent- 
uries of time, and of which persecution and afflictions, 
he faithfully forewarned them. From the going forth of 
Satan from the presence of the Lord, in the twelfth 
verse of this first chapter of the book, all is taken up in 
the account of the taking away of the substance of Job, 
by the Sabeans and Chaldeans, and with the burning up 
of his flock of seven thousand sheep, by the falling on 
them of the "fire of God" from heaven, and the fall of the 
house of feasting before a "great wind from the wilder- 
ness," and the death of his seven sons therein, all ending 



72 • THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

with Job blessing the Lord for what had befallen him, 
and so, with the complete failure of Satan's project to 
prove him a false pretender to faith in God, by taking 
away all that he had. Even so ended in failure the first 
great project for the suppression of Christianity by con- 
fiscation and destruction of the property holdings of 
Christians. This alarmed and aroused Rome, who now 
resolved to subject her "heretics 1 ' to a second and a far 
more terrible test than the first, that of torture and death 
of their persons ; for by this time we are brought down, 
both in prophecy and in its fulfilling history, to the* be- 
ginning of the thirteenth century, A. D., and to the es- 
tablishment of the "Holy Office," or Inquisition for 
Blood. This is foretold in the next chapter, which might 
be called an account of the 

Second Advent of Satan. 

The first verse reads : 

"Again there was a day when the sons of 
■ God came to present themselves before the 
Lord, and Satan came also among them to 
present himself before the Lord." 

One thing is notable here, and that is that while in 
the first account nothing is said as to Satan's purpose 
in coming among the sons of God, here, at his second 
advent among them, he comes for precisely the same 
purpose as theirs, to present himself before the Lord. 
In a word, Satan has joined the church, and is now a 
pretended worshipper at the throne of God among his 
sons. He was taken in on probation, at the unholy al- 
liance of the church with the state in the fourth cen- 
tury A. D., when Constantine ascended the throne as 
the first Christian emperor. Then began the great 
apostacy of the ruling church, when Christianity pagan- 
ized, and paganism put on the outward form of Chris- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 73 

tianity. The ruling spirit of paganism was the love and 
desire of rule and domination for their own sake, and 
not for the sake of the ruled and dominated. This spirit, 
the church absorbed into its very life ; and this was the 
second and grand entree of Satan among the sons of 
God ; and now, for a time, to become the governor-gen- 
eral of the forces of the now apostate, and in its turn, 
persecuting church, and the director and executor of its 
policies. 

Still, it was not until the dawn of the thirteenth 
century A. D. that the Inquisition was established for 
the suppression of "heresy" by the extermination of 
"heretics ;" and the heretics were all those who dissented 
from the authority of Rome as the supreme arbiter of 
their destinies, both here and hereafter, and who pro- 
tested against the crimes and profligacies of the heads of 
the church. These were the Protestants, so called from 
their protests against these things. And now it was re- 
solved to put them to the' test of torture of their person, 
saying among- themselves that rather than endure this, 
they would forswear their faith, or curse God. to his face, 
as Satan describes it, and return to their allegiance to 
Rome. 

And it is this most terrible thing in the annals of all 
crime, that is here darkly foreshadowed in the final 
words of Satan at the close of this, his second interview 
and argument with the Lord, on the subject of Job. The 
Lord demands of him if he has considered his servant Job, 
that he still holds fast his integrity, although he has 
been moved to destroy him without cause. Then Satan 
answers : 

". . . skin for skin, yea, all that a man 

hath will he give for his life. 

"But put forth thine hand now and touch 

his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to 

thy face." 



74 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

This was the exact and Satanic logic of the Inquisi- 
tion. Touch the flesh and the bone of these obstinate 
heretics, and they will recant their heresies. To recant 
their heresies meant to deny the Lord Jesus Christ — so 
to curse God to his face — and to acknowledge the Pope 
as their supreme Lord — so to exalt a man above his 
Maker. This they would not do, and were smitten from 
sole to crown, even as the Devil smote Job. 

"And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he 
is in thine hand ; but save his life." 

"So went forth Satan from the presence of 
the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from 
the sole of his foot unto his crown." 

What is signified by the going forth of Satan from 
the presence of the Lord, on his mission of merciless 
cruelty to Job, is this : The alliance of the church with 
the state was itself a going forth from the presence of 
the Lord, to worship at the shrine of the World for the 
sake of worldly advantage. What the Christ had refused 
to do, to fall down and worship the devil in return for 
all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, 
this the now apostate church did when it allied itself 
with the Roman Empire. What a going forth from the 
presence of the Lord was that ! And how well was it 
written :. 

"Now the serpent was more subtle than 
any beast of the field which the Lord God had 
made." 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Lord of the Drama — Divine Providence 
Dramatized. 

Here suddenly we find ourselves, not so 
much in a critical speculation as in a holy place ; 
and should go very reverently and warily. — 
Emerson. 

It should be understood, to begin with, that of what 
is said under this head nothing is intended to turn upon 
or to touch any question of the reality of the person of 
the Deity; but only the question whether or not the 
Lord in person, actually spoke the words given in his 
name, in the Jobic drama. It follows, as shadow fol- 
lows substance, that if the premises laid down at the be- 
ginning of this treatise, namely : that the story of Job, 
as a whole, is a shadow forecast in Messianic prophecy 
of the Messianic age, or Christian era, with specially 
constructed types and figures for its leading characters, 
and for the leading and most important events, institu- 
tions and enterprises of this era, if these premises are 
correct, then it follows that the Lord of the drama is 
himself, with all the others of the dramatis persona? 
thereof, a constructed figure, speaking of and for the 
overruling, divine providences of the era, dramatically 
rendered as vocal utterances of the Deity. This is the 
whole secret of the great mystery of the argument be- 



76 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

tween the Lord and Satan, over the question of the in- 
tegrity of Job. This brief, invented, and constructed ar- 
gument between the sovereign powers of good, and evil, 
covers prophetically the whole ground of the great con- 
tention over the question, in its day, of the integrity of 
Jesus the Christ. 

Here, this speaking figure of Divine Providence is 
made by the composer of the drama, to ask of Satan, 
Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none 
like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one 
that feareth God, and escheweth evil? And this is sim- 
ply and only the prophetic equivalent of that question of 
the Lord Jesus which he put to the "Satan" in the form 
of the Pharisees, What think ye of Christ? Whose son 
is he? In our text the sequel shows how Satan had con- 
sidered Job- — that he was not what the Lord considered 
him, a perfect and an upright man, but a false pretender 
to a piety he never possessed, and one who served God 
from a mercenary motive, and for a selfish purpose. 
Just so, the sequel shows how the Pharisees — the Satan 
of our text — considered the Christ, of whom all this is 
testimony- — that he was only the son of David, a man, 
like themselves, and therefore, a false pretender to the 
Sonship of God. The correspondence is full, perfect and 
complete. And now that we are beyond the shadow of 
a doubt that the Lord — of the drama of Job — is but a 
speaking figure for the divine providences of the Mes- 
sianic age, and that, therefore, the words of the argu- 
ment between It and the Satan ©f the drama, were never 
actually spoken by either Satan or the Lord, all of the 
wise and learned of the schoolmen to the contrary not- 
withstanding*, we proceed to the next great occasion for 
the speaking of this grand figure. 

It is at the beginning of the 38th chapter of the 
book, where we read as follows : Then the Lord an- 
swered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, — What the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 77 

Lord said to Job, we leave for future consideration; for 
this sublime address of the Deity to Job occupies four of 
the longest chapters of the book. That this need not, 
and should not be accepted as a record of a literal fact, 
we are clearly taught in other scripture, where we are 
plainly told that God is not in the wind, and that his 
voice is not heard in any of the loud and violent commo- 
tions of external nature, but that his voice is a "still 
small voice," and one that can be heard only under con- 
ditions of both external and internal quiet. This, Jesus 
taught, saying that if one would speak to, and be spoken 
to by the Spirit, he should go into his closet and shut 
the door ; the idea of this being to shut out all diverting 
and distracting sights and sounds, as being" hindrances 
to communion with the Spirit. Then, in I Kings 19, we 
read that Elijah stood before the Lord, on Mount Horeb, 

And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a 
great and strong wind rent the mountains, and 
brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord ; but 
the Lord was not in the wind ; and after the 
wind an earthquake : 

And after the earthquake a fire : but the 
Lord was not in the fire ; and after the fire, a 
still small voice. 

This was the voice of the Lord ; and this, the 
prophet could not hear until the uproar of the wind, and 
the quake of the earth, and the flame of the fire had all 
subsided, and stillness and quiet prevailed. Yet, in 
the face of the teaching of Christ, and this notable ex- 
perience of the prophet of old, we are asked to think, 
or to accept their dictum without thinking, by the so- 
called critics of the Bible, that once in the long ago, a 
man by the name of Job, stood before the Lord, in the 
land of Uz, and heard him deliver a four-chapter 
speech from out the depths of a mighty commotion of 



78 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the elements, called a "whirlwind." Because why: it 
says so in the book. Yes, and it says so in the Book, 
that once the sun stopped going down, and stood still 
at the command of a Jewish general by the name of 
Joshua ; and that it, the sun, "hasted not to go down in 
the heavens for about a whole day," or words to that 
effect, and that the moon also stayed its going down 
"until the people had avenged themselves of their ene- 
mies." Query : what did Joshua want of moonlight, so 
long as he could have all the sunlight he wanted? 

But now, in the light of today, we know that the 
sun never goes down, nor comes up ; and consequently, 
that it never was stopped from doing something which 
it never had begun to do. The story is an allegory, or 
narration of a fictitious event for the illustration of some 
important truth or principle. Just so, this account of 
the long speaking of Jehovah to Job, out of a whirlwind, 
is purely allegorical ; and any and all comment there- 
upon which shall be worthy of notice, must needs be in 
the way of some kind of exposition of its allegorical 
meaning. First then, what is signified by the "whirl- 
wind" out of which the Lord is here said to have an- 
swered Job? Remembering that Job of Uz, never had 
existence as such, but is, in the drama, a prototype of 
Jesus of Nazareth, we have only to look forward to his 
work in the world, whose coming to it was the signal 
for the beginning of the overthrowing and whirling 
away into everlasting oblivion of the then existing, old 
and effete order of the affairs of mankind, and the up- 
building of a new, and a better order of things in its 
place — we have only to look forward to this, in order to 
know and understand what is meant by the "whirl- 
wind," out of which the Lord answers Job, in this an- 
cient piece of pure Messianic prophecy, that is called 
the Book of Job. 

It is, in a prophetic foreshadowing thereof, that 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 79 

mighty revolution to be begun to be wrought in the 
ideas and institutions of mankind, at the advent of the 
Christ of God, and in the midst of which, we are today, 
in a vastly augmented force and volume, through the 
invention of the printing press, the adaptation of steam 
and electricity to the needs and uses of a broadening 
and a brightening civilization throughout the world. All 
of these agencies and means to that end, are separately 
and specifically named and described in the course of the 
address of the Deity to Job, out of the whirlwind, to- 
gether with others, not named here, and most of them, 
under figures of members of the animal kingdom, as we 
shall show when we come to them in their order of ex- 
position. 

And now, today, the rush and the roar of that whirl- 
wind of the Lord are felt and heard around the world. 
We hear and feel its destructive power in the crash of 
falling empires, and the down thundering of thrones, 
principalities, and dominions ; and its constructive ener- 
gies in the upbuilding of democracies of the people in 
their places. We see the lightnings, and hear the thun- 
derings thereof, in the flash and roar of the artillery of 
hostile and contending armies on the land, and in the 
flame and boom of the big guns of the battleships on the 
sea. We hear it in the rush of railway trains, and the 
earthquaking tread of gigantic horses of iron and steam 
at their head, with all "their hoofs as flint, and their 
wheels like a whirlwind," as says another prophet of 
the same — Isaiah. 

This leads us to note here, that striking series of 
figures from the animal kingdom, which is brought into 
the answer of the Lord to Job, out of the whirlwind. It 
consists of a graduated scale of organisms, beginning 
with the lion, and gradually ascending the scale, includes 
larger and larger, such as the "horse," the "wild ass," 
the "unicorn," the "behemoth," and last, and largest of 



80 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

all, the huge "leviathan." All of these are chosen figures 
of things to come in fact, out of the whirlwind of revolu- 
tion to begin to 'blow, at the advent of Christ, and so to 
increase in spread and power that at last it should "take 
hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be 
shaken out of it." 

This graduated scale of figures from animal life, be- 
ginning with the smaller, and rising from great to 
greater, and ending with the greatest, is, as a whole, in 
close and exact correspondence to and with the gradual 
rise and growth of the enterprises, institutions, and 
scientific inventions of the Messianic age, as a whole. 
Each one of them has its own specific correspondence in 
something notable and important in Christian history,, 
from the commencement of the era, on down to our own 
immediate time. For the Lord is not indulging" in trifling- 
talk about what kind of noise a horse makes when he 
neighs, nor what the wild ass eats, nor how the bones of 
the behemoth are bound together, nor how the scales of 
the leviathan are stuck fast to each other, Avith much 
more of the same kind — as so many of the would-be doc- 
tors of this divinity seem to think he does in his address 
to Job, out of the whirlwind. 

It is quite safe to say that the Lord does not deliver 
lengthy addresses out of whirlwinds to types and figures 
of prophecy, except typically and figuratively, as is done 
here. For these are all of them, words of God, as given 
to his prophet to write, in representation of the answer 
he should make in the way of granted results from the 
labor and sacrifice of his beloved Son, and not vocal ut- 
terances of the Lord, out of a- literal whirlwind ; this 
being a poetic formula of Messianic prophecy, and not a 
bare record of any literal fact whatever. And until we 
come to learn that the author of Job was not only one 
of the greatest of prophets, but was also one of the 
greatest of poets, and to treat his work according to his 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 81 

method, we shall never be able to read it understand- 
ingly, even as none of its critics have ever yet done so, 
this being among and of those things of which the Christ 
said that they are hidden from the wise and prudent, and 
revealed unto babes; and this by the Lord himself. 

Neither is this the only prophet in scripture who 
has used the figure of a whirlwind for the sweeping judg- 
ments of the Lord upon the wicked, in the latter days, 
when he should come who was to come to exercise jus- 
tice and judgment in the earth upon all who do wick- 
edly, and to establish the righteous in peace and safety. 
In Jeremiah's prophecy of the rule and salvation of 
Christ, he says : 

Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone 
forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind : it 
shall fall grievously upon the head of the 
wicked. 

The anger of the Lord shall not return, un- 
til he hath executed, and till he hath performed 
the thoughts of his heart : in the latter days ye 
shall consider it perfectly. 

These are "the latter days" of this prophecy, both 
in Jeremiah, and in Job ; the "whirlwind," signifying the 
same thing in both prophecies ; and now it is high time 
for us to begin to see how perfectly we may be able to 
consider it in its true meaning and purport ; both it, and 
the answer of the Lord, to Job, from out its depths; and 
to search and see if we may find something in it more 
commensurate with the dignity of a divine revelation 
than we can find in it as a record of an actually occurring 
circumstance — which we ought always to have known, 
and now do know, that it never was intended for such, 
however imperfect and incomplete our interpretation of 
it may be. Lastly, to sum up the points of our argument 
under the heading of The Lord of the Drama — it is a 



82 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

constructed and speaking figure, pure and simple, of and 
for the Providential events, facts and phenomena of the 
coming Messianic age, dramatically and poetically ren- 
dered by the author, as the speaking of Jehovah to Job 
—himself a builded prototype of the coming Christ. The 
"whirlwind," out of which the Lord is said to answer Job 
—a poetic simile for the revolutionary phenomena of the 
Christian era. The "answer" itself — another poetic fig- 
ure, for the practical response of the Father to the Son, 
in giving him to accomplish that whereunto he was sent, 
and his full reward therefor. When his work was done, 

The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at 
my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy 
footstool. 

Even so, the Psalmist has rendered rightly the an- 
swer of the Lord to Job, out of the whirlwind ; this to be 
as perfect in works as now in his Word. 



CHAPTER X. 

The Taking Away of the Substance of Job — The 
Destruction of the Church. 

Next after the going forth of Satan from the pres- 
ence of the Lord, with leave to do whatsoever he would 
with all that Job has, we read as follows : 

"And there was a day when his sons and 
his daughters were eating and drinking wine 
in their eldest brother's house : 

"And there came a messenger unto Job, 
and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses 
feeding beside them : 

"And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took 
them away ; yea, they -have slain the servants 
with the edge of the sword ; and I only am es- 
caped alone to tell thee. 

"While he was yet speaking, there came 
also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen 
from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, 
and the servants, and consumed them ; and I 
only am escaped alone to tell thee. 

"While he was yet speaking, there came 
also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out 
three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have 
carried them away, yea, and slain the servants 
with the edge of the sword ; and I only am es- 
caped alone to tell thee. 



84 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

"While he was yet speaking, there came 
also another, and said, Thy sons and thy 
daughters were eating and drinking wine in 
their eldest brother's house : 

"And, behold, there came a great wind from 
the wilderness, and smote the four corners of 
the house, and it fell upon the young men, and 
they are dead ; and I only am escaped alone to 
tell thee." 

There is no part of equal length with this account 
of the coming of these four messengers of calamity into 
their master's presence with such regularity of arrival 
at their destination, and with such precision of speech, 
and repetition of the same words when arrived, to be 
found anywhere in the book, which bears clearer evi- 
dence on the face of it, of invention and construction for 
some representative purpose, and so, of its unreal char- 
acter as a record of actual occurrences, than does this. 
Flying in mortal terror and precipitate haste from four 
different quarters of a wide field of carnage and slaugh- 
ter of their fellow servants, each one of them barely 
escaping with his own life to rush away to tell the 
breathless tale to his master, each one of the three last is 
made to reach his presence precisely while his fellow 
servant before him is speaking his little, short piece, and 
to wind up his report in precisely the same words used 
by his predecessor, all with the exact precision of the 
cogs of a wheel, each one entering the "mash" while the 
one next to it is leaving it. 

Then, how very singular it seems, that out of four 
different companies of herdsmen, one only escapes of 
each company to tell the story of the robbery and the 
massacre. Taken altogether, this breaks the record of 
panics, escapes, and flights, for its orderliness and ma- 
chine-like regularity of movement. And it is clearly 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 85 

evident that it never actually occurred, as related and 
described. Neither is that most convenient loop-hole of 
escape for the critics, "convenience," open for them here. 
As often as they come to something in this story which 
they can not help seeing could not possibly have hap- 
pened as narrated, which is on almost every page of the 
book, and which they cannot explain, they say the writer 
told it in that way for "convenience" of expression, and 
must not be held to a too strict account for taking the 
most convenient way for telling his story. Here, he 
seems to have taken the most inconvenient way possible 
for telling the story of the coming of the panic-stricken 
messengers of direst calamities to their master, and has 
reduced it to the order and coolness of the calculation 
of a slow problem in mathematics, with a steady repeti- 
tion of the same terms throughout. And here the "rat 
hole philosophy" of the regulars is entirely at fault; 
there is no convenient hole to dodge into here and hide 
out of the light of the truth that they know nothing 
whatever of the matter in question. 

To take up this series of calamities and treat them 
separately, we begin with the "day when his sons and 
his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their 
eldest brother's house." This "day" is, in historic time, 
that period of time and its events extending from early 
in the fourth century, A. D., when Constantine ascended 
the throne, as the first Christian emperor, and Christian- 
ity became the state religion of the Roman empire, on 
to the dawn of the thirteenth century, A. D., or a period 
of about eight centuries, or approximately nine ; for eras 
of both prophetic and historic time overlap and shade 
off, out of and into each other like clouds of the sky, hav- 
ing no sharply defined beginnings nor endings ; hence 
the futility of those calculations which presume to set 
the exact time to the dav, when prophecy shall be ful- 
filled. 



86 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

It was during this "day," of the text, that Protest- 
antism had made such headway that it had assumed 
something of organic form, had churches with pastors 
and congregations, and began to put forth missionary 
efforts. And it is of their assemblages for Christian 
communion and worship that it is here written: "Thy 
sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine 
in their eldest brother's house :" the house of their eldest 
brother, Christ. This alarmed and aroused Rome, who 
now resolved upon a systematic and relentless destruc- 
tion of the growing body of Protestantism. For now 
"The Church was allied with the state, and religious 
dogmas were enforced with the sword of the mag- 
istrate," as says "Lord's Old Roman World. " And it is 
of the whole destruction of Protestant churches, and the 
killing of their congregations during this long period of 
time, that this series of calamities befalling the patriarch 
Job, is representative. For Job, in his manifold afflic- 
tions, is here the Christ, suffering in the body of his 
afflicted people whatsoever is inflicted upon it. 

The "oxen" on which the Sabeans fall and take them 
away, are the pastors of the churches ; and "the servants" 
who are slain "with the edge of the sword," are the con- 
gregations of the churches. Then, "the Sabeans" them- 
selves, are the Secular Powers which the Papacy had 
in its employ for the wielding of the sword by which 
its dogmas were enforced. Next in order comes the re- 
port of the burning up of the sheep and the servants with 
them, by the falling upon them of "the fire of God — 
from heaven." It has been explained before this, that 
the "sheep" of Job are the flock of Christ in its entirety. 
And this burning up and consuming of his flock is de- 
signed to represent that destruction and dispersion of the 
Protestant flock of the sheep of Christ, which was accom- 
plished in the time of the great persecution of Protest- 
ants throughout all Christendom', and which now makes 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 87 

the bloodiest and blackest page in the history of all 
martyrdom : for this, as prophesied here in Job, is the 
same as in the prophecy of Zechariah, 13:7: 

"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, 
and against the man that is my fellow, saith the 
Lord of hosts : smite the shepherd, and the 
sheep shall be scattered ; and I will turn mine 
hand upon the little ones." 

The critics can make nothing out of "the fire of 
God," falling from heaven on the sheep of Job, and burn- 
ing them up and consuming them, but lightning out of 
the sky overhead, and are obliged to let it go for that. 
Yet it is well known to everyone that lightning, while it 
kills with a sudden shock, never burns up nor consumes 
the body of man or beast ; it passes off and away too sud- 
denly for that, and often it leaves no visible mark on the 
body ; even the clothing is not ignited when a human 
being is killed by lightning; yet here are seven thousand 
sheep grazing in every direction around, and their shep- 
herds with them all killed, not only, but burned up and 
utterly consumed by lightning, if we may believe what 
the critics tell us. Had they known who Job is, or whom 
and what he represents, there had been no need to resort 
to this impossible theory in order to account for this 
heretofore unheard of phenomenon. 

It is the burning and consuming fire of the wrath of 
the Papal Roman Hierarchy, as directed against the 
doomed flock of the sheep of Christ and their shepherds, 
that is here prefigured as the falling of the fire of God 
from heaven, on the sheep of Job and burning up and 
consuming them. It is here called "the fire of God," and 
is said to fall from "heaven," in strict accord with the 
spirit and doctrine of the drama throughout, which 
teach that everything of evil, equally with everything 
of good which befalls, is of God, and from heaven. Con- 



88 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

sistently with this doctrine — which is Christ's own — 
when Job is made to hear of all this great evil that has 
come upon him, he is made to acknowledge it all as from 
the hand of God, and to exclaim, "What? shall we re- 
ceive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive 
evil?" 

Neither are we obliged to look solely to the literal 
burning up at the stake of many of the sheep of Christ, 
for an historic correspondence to its figure here in Job ; 
for while many of them were literally "burned up and 
consumed," both dead and alive, many others of them 
scattered and fled to the four corners of the earth ; and a 
scattered flock is a consumed flock ; as a flock, it is de- 
stroyed, although even a majority of its members may 
escape with their lives. And so, the figure of the burning 
up and consuming of the sheep of Job, is justified by the 
facts of subsequent history, in all the phases of the fig- 
ure : Some of them were burned at the stake : some went 
into exile, either voluntary or enforced, and others of 
them were slain "with the edge of the sword," until at 
last in one way and another, the sheep of Job were 
"burned and consumed." 

Next in order comes the taking - away of the camels ; 
and it is notable here, that while nothing is said of any- 
thing like 'an organization on the part of the Sabeans in 
their raid on the oxen and asses, when it comes to the 
Chaldeans, it is said they "made out three bands" to fall 
upon the camels and carry them away. And just here is 
where the cheap and easy style of commentary comes 
into its cheapest and easiest opportunity. There were 
three thousand of the camels, they say, and three bands 
of robbers could easily separate them into three drov-es of 
a thousand, each, and then each band would have a drove 
all to itself — a most admirable arrangement. This is per- 
haps, the most plausible explanation of the way some- 
thing was done which never was done in any way what- 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 89 

ever, so far as this narrative is concerned, to be found 
inside the covers of all the commentaries. 

The camels of Job, it has been explained, represent 
the transporting', or missionary phase of the Christian 
propaganda; and that the Sabeans are the secular powers 
in the service of the church of Anti-Christ for the sup- 
pression of "heresy," each within its own dominion. 
These were to take care of the "oxen," or local pastors 
of congregations, either by killing them, or exiling them 
beyond the borders of their respective States. This was 
a comparatively simple and easy matter. But to sup- 
press the propagation of the heresies of Protestantism 
by travelling missionaries throughout the length and 
breadth of all the dominions of the Papacy, this was 
something which required a wide sweeping manifesta- 
tion of the allied forces of church and state ; for the 
"camels" of Protestantism were much more numerous 
than the "oxen ;" they w r ere preaching its heretical doc- 
trines everywhere ; hence a crusade against them was 
proclaimed, and an army of half a million men made up 
of three nations, French, German, and Italian, was 
thrown upon them. So, "the Chaldeans made out three 
bands and fell upon the camels and carried them away," 
and slew the servants "with the edge of the sword." 

Chaldea was a country famous for its many pre- 
tended seers, and spiritual sorcerers and conjurers with 
the unseen. And it was from this circumstance that the 
figure of the "Chaldeans" falling upon the camels of Job, 
and carry them away, was drawn ; for it was by means 
of spiritual conjurations and sorceries that this three- 
banded army of men was raised and induced to make war 
against the Protestants. It was by the pretense of par- 
doning all of their sins, and offering them a free passport 
into heaven, and sparing them the pains of purgatory, 
that the. church seduced so large a number away from 
their legitimate occupations to engage in a war for the 



90 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

defense of Catholicism, and for the extirpation of heresy 
by the extermination of all heretics. And this is why 
they are here called "the Chaldeans ;" this, on the prin- 
ciple of like servant, like master — the spiritual sorcerers, 
or heads of the church, being the real and original "Chal- 
deans" of the text. 

Lastly in this connection, comes the messenger who 
reports the fall of the "eldest brother's house" before "a 
great wind from the wilderness," and the death of the 
seven sons of Job, who with their three sisters "were 
eating and drinking wine" therein when it fell upon the 
young men, and they were dead, with no account of what 
became of their three sisters. It has been explained in 
a previous chapter that the seven sons of Job stand for 
the seven fold church in its entire outward and organic 
form and capacity, while the three daughters are the 
church-spiritual, pure and perennial ; that their eating 
and drinking wine together is the celebration of the 
Christian communion and worship ; and that the fall of 
the house is the destruction of the church in its organic 
form ; and the death of the sons of Job, is the temporary 
cessation of public worship throughout Protestant Chris- 
tendom under the stress of Catholic persecution. There- 
fore these things need not be dwelt upon here, and it only 
remains to say what is signified by the ending of each 
report of the four messengers in identically the same 
words: ". . . and I only am escaped alone to tell 
thee." It represents that exceeding closeness and clean 
sweep of the massacres of Protestant communities by the 
crusaders, who were instructed to spare neither master 
nor servant, which is now so unhappily a matter of his- 
toric record. One, is a closer number to none, than any 
other number possible to have been used for its purpose 
— which is closeness of representation — while more than 
one, would have marred the closeness of the figure, 
which as it stands, is unimprovably perfect. Then the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 91 

making of the three last messengers of calamity tread 
on the heels of those before them in their haste, and each 
to follow the other with his report so soon as "while he 
was yet speaking," represents the swift and close suc- 
cession of the horrors of the crusades, the echo of one 
not having died away ere the uproar of another filled 
and shocked the ears of the civilized world. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Second Advent of Satan— The Era of 
the Inquisition. 

"And it was given unto him to make war 

with the saints, and to overcome them : and 

power was given him over all kindreds, and 
tongues, and nations." — Rev., 13:7. 

The first advent of Satan among u the^ sons of God," 
as foretold in the sixth verse of the first chapter of the 
prologue to the Jobic drama, was in smallness and weak- 
ness ; it being in the person of the traitor, Judas Iscariot. 
In Luke, 22 :3, we read : 

"Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed 
Iscariot ; being of the number of the twelve." 

Neither is Job the only prophet of the first advent of 
Satan among the sons of God, in the person of one of 
the friends of Jesus. It is foretold in Psalms, 41 :9, where 
we read : 

"Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I 
trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted 
up his heel against me." 

Then, Jesus himself forewarned the church, among 
his last words when he was on his way to the cross, of 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 93 

a second coming of Satan among them and against them, 
this time in great power and with such malignity of 
spirit and purpose as to make what he had done to Him 
personally, and to his immediate followers, a matter of 
comparatively small account. — Mark, 13:18, 19. 

"And pray ye that your flight be not in the 
winter. 

"For in those days shall be affliction, such 
as was not from the beginning of the creation 
which God created unto this time, neither shall 
be." 

It is of these "days," calling them all together "a 
day," that the prophet writes here, saying: 

"Again there was a day when the sons of 
God came to present themselves before the 
Lord, and Satan came also among them to pre- 
sent himself before the Lord." 

Meanwhile, from the first "day" of the coming of 
Satan among" the sons of God, until now, the second day, 
twelve full centuries of historic time have elapsed, and 
Ave are brought down here to the beginning of the thir- 
teenth century, A. D., or to the date of the establishment 
of the Inquisition as a last desperate resort for the sup- 
pression of dissent from the authority of the ruling 
church, and for the silencing of all protest against her 
manifold corruptions and crimes ; in a word, it is now a 
war to the death upon the Protestant Church, that is now 
set on foot, prophetically, at this second advent of Satan 
among the sons of God. And the result of this second 
conference between Satan and the Lord, concerning Job, 
is that Satan gets permission to take full possession of 
the person of Job, something which he has not had be- 
fore, with only the restriction laid upon him by the Lord, 
that he must "save his life." The practical meaning of 



94 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

this is that the last faint ray of spiritual light and re- 
ligious liberty was not to be extinguished out of the earth 
in this darkest age of the "dark ages" of Christian his- 
tory, although this was the time of which Guizot wrote 
that now the human mind "had suffered death by the 
extinction of every faculty." 

Returning now to our text, we read: 

"So went Satan forth from the presence 
of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from 
the sole of his foot unto his crown. 

"And he took him a potsherd to scrape him- 
self withal ; and he sat down among the ashes." 

Waiving all notice of the endless speculations of the 
critics upon this smiting of Job from sole to crown by a 
person called "Satan," and as to the particular kind of 
disease this purely typical person called "Job," was 
smitten with — all of them foolish, and some of them filthy 
— we proceed directly to its exposition as a figure of Mes- 
sianic prophecy. This stupendous and appalling figure 
of the wholeness and completeness of the martyrdom of 
Protestant Christianity in the person of Job, smitten 
from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head with 
sore boils, finds support and confirmation, as a figure of a 
smitten people, in the vision of the prophet Isaiah "con- 
cerning Judah and Jerusalem" in their fallen and 
wretched state "in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, 
and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." He compares the smit- 
ten people to a smitten person, precisely as does the 
prophet Job, in the figure now before us, and in almost 
identically the same words : 

"From the sole of the foot even unto the 
head there is no soundness in it ; but wounds, 
and bruises, and putrefying sores : they have not 
been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified 
with ointment." — Isa., 1 :6. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 95 

And now while this figure, the smiting of the person 
of Job, is specific of the period of the Inquisition, or from 
the beginning of the thirteenth to that of the nineteenth 
century, A. D., in its wholeness it goes back to the be- 
ginning of that first systematic and official persecution 
of "heretics" which was inaugurated by the church dur- 
ing the reign of Constantine, early in the fourth cen- 
tury, A. D. For although Constantine was himself dis- 
posed to tolerance, as witness the Edict of Milan by 
which he granted religious freedom to all the subjects of 
the Roman Empire throughout the world, he soon dis- 
covered that, not Constantine, but the Catholic Bishop 
at Rome, was the real Emperor. And it was at his in- 
stigation, and under his direction that the nominal em- 
peror called a council of three hundred bishops, and to 
them was "entrusted" the control of the faith and the 
fortunes of all heretics. These heretics were now com- 
manded to submit to be deprived of that freedom of 
thought and speech wherewith Christ had made them 
freemen, and to come under the yoke of that slavery 
with which the Church now sought to make them slaves ; 
and this, under the penalty of immediate exile from their 
lands and homes. 

Thus it was, that at the beginning of that long, 
systematic crusade against Christian freedom which cul- 
minated in after centuries in that widespread massacre 
of men, women, and children, which is now open his- 
tory to any one with the courage to inspect it, the initial 
stroke was at the soil under the soles of the feet of the 
martyred Christ, in the body of his people. But does it 
make any difference whether Satan smote Job from the 
sole of his foot up to his crown, or vice versa, from his 
crown down to his sole? It makes such a difference as to 
undertake to build a house from the roof down to the 
foundation, instead of from the foundation up to the 
roof. The whole figure has been wrought in strict cor- 



96 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

respondence with the order of the growth of the persecu- 
tions heaped upon the body of Protestant Christianity, 
from the lowest form and order, to the highest ; it there- 
fore is not by accident, nor for convenience, but by de- 
sign, that the smiling of Job at the hand of Satan, is 
made to begin at the sole of his foot, and to end at the 
crown of his head. 

How it rose to the crown, omitting not to "touch 
his flesh and his bone" at every tender and vulnerable 
spot between the sole and the crown, through every kind, 
degree, shade and refinement of methods of torture which 
Satanic ingenuity inspired by Satanic malice, could con- 
ceive and devise — for this see Elliot on Romanism, 
White's Universal History, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, 
D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, and many 
others, both Protestant and Catholic writers. Here, suf- 
fice it to say that the crowning act of the smiting of Job 
was the Purgatorial act, by which' all "heretics" were con- 
signed to the flames of purgatory ; the imprisonment of 
the mind in dungeons of proscription of things not to be 
thought ; the padlocking" of the lips as to things not' to be 
spoken ; the assassination of the soul, aimed at ; these 
were the things, with many others like unto them, which 
altogether made up the platted crown of thorns which 
was placed upon the bowed head of Protestant Chris- 
tianity in the last of the long dark ages of its crucifixion ; 
and these are the things which fill up the measure of the 
now historic correspondence to the prophetic figure of 
the smiting of Job from the sole of his foot unto his 
crown. And for these things, "Thou must blame no- 
body," as says M. Antoninus. They were to be, from 
the beginning ; otherwise, how could the prophets have 
foretold them? 

"And he took him a potsherd to scrape him- 
self withal ; and he sat down among the ashes." 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 97 

The 'critics have kindly informed us that a potsherd 
is a piece of broken pottery; and that after the fall of 
the house of his eldest son, before the four-cornered hur- 
ricane, there would be likely to be plenty of potsherds 
lying around in easy reach of even so sick a man as Job. 
Also that sitting in ashes was a custom of the time when 
Job lived, to symbolize desolation. In fact, the whole 
situation here is a very easy one — for the critics ; there 
is almost nothing for them to do, and they do it admir- 
ably well, as usual. But in our view of the fact that 
types and shadows do not sit down in ashes, nor take 
them potsherds to scrape themselves withal, there is real 
work for the critic here, in order to find the meaning, and 
to make the application of this sad figure of the deeply 
afflicted patriarch sitting down among the ashes of deso- 
lation, and scraping himself with a potsherd to cleanse 
himself of the corruption oozing from the sore boils 
which Satan has smitten him with, from his sole to his 
crown. And knowing, as we do, that all of this is type 
and shadow of things to come, and that it is of the smit- 
ten and desolated church of Christ in the time to come of 
its sorest affliction and deepest desolation, that this is 
written, we turn to the history of that time, there to find 
the Substance of which these things are but the shadow 
forecast. 

"It was from the time of the revival of learning in 
the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the minds 
of men began to waken out of a long nightmare dream of 
hopeless ignorance and haunting superstition, that the 
old Waldensian heresy, which dated certainly as far back 
as the fourth century, and according to some authorities, 
to the first century, now awoke to new life and vigor, 
now reinforced by the Albigenses, the Huguenots, and 
still later, by the Hussites and Wycliffites." This 
alarmed and aroused Rome, who now resolved to put 
forth one supreme and mighty effort to crush out all 



98 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

opposition to her authority, and to silence forever all 
protest against her profligacies and corruptions. 

Then it was that popes, councils, theologians, kings, 
crusaders and inquisitors combined, their fiendish powers 
to exterminate every opponent, and to extinguish the 
faintest rays of dawning light. Pope Innocent III. first 
sent missionaries to the districts in which the doctrines 
of the Albigenses had gained foothold, to preach Roman- 
ism, work miracles, etc. But finding these efforts unavail- 
ing, he proclaimed a crusade against them, and offered 
to all who would engage in it, the pardon of all sins, and 
an immediate passport into heaven without passing 
through purgatory. With full faith in the Pope's power 
to bestow the promised rewards, half a million of men, 
French, German, and Italian, rallied around the standard 
of the cross for the defense of Catholicism and the ex- 
tinction of heresy. 

Then followed a series of battles and sieges covering 
a space of twenty years. The city of Beziers was stormed 
and taken in 1209, and the citizens, without regard for 
age or sex, perished by the sword to the number of sixty 
thousand, as reported by several historians — "yea, they 
have slain the servants with the edge of the sword." 
Lavaur was besieged in 1211. The Governor was hanged 
on a gibbet, and his wife was thrown into a well, and 
crushed with stones. The citizens were, without dis- 
crimination, put to death; four hundred being burned 
alive — "and has burned up the sheep and the servants 
and consumed them." The flourishing province of Lan- 
guedoc was devastated, its cities burned, and its inhabit- 
ants swept away by fire and sword. It is estimated that 
one hundred thousand Albigenses fell in one day ; and 
their bodies were heaped together and burned. Be it 
remembered, however, that these open crusades against 
the Albigenses, and Waldenses, were undertaken merely 
because the so-called "heresy" had gained a strong hold 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 90 

upon large portions of these communities. It would be a 
great mistake to suppose that the crusades were the only 
persecutions ; the quiet, steady crushing of individuals, 
in the aggregate numbering thousands, all over Papacy's 
wide domain, went steadily on — wearing out the saints 
of the Most High. 

Charles V., Emperor of Germany, and King of Spain, 
and the Netherlands, persecuted the friends of the 
Reformation throughout his extensive dominions. . . . 
In the Netherlands, the men who followed were to be 
beheaded, and the women buried alive, or if obstinate, 
to be committed to the flames. . . . The Duke of 
Alva boasted of the execution of 18,000 Protestants in 
six weeks. Paolo reckons the number who in the Nether- 
lands were executed on account of their religion, at 50,- 
000. 

The massacre of Merindol, planned by the French 
king, and approved by the French Parliament, was com- 
mitted to the President, Appeda, for execution. The 
President was commissioned to slay the population, burn 
the towns, and demolish the castles of the Waldenses, 
large numbers of whom resided in that section. Roman 
Catholic historians admit that in compliance with this 
commission, thousands, including men, women, and chil- 
dren, were massacred, twenty-four towns ruined, and 
the country left waste and desolate. 

The massacre of Orange, A. D. 1562, was of a similar 
character to that of Merindol. . . . The Italian 
army, sent by Pope Pius IV., was commanded to slay 
men, women, and children ;' and the command was exe- 
cuted with terrible cruelty. The defenseless "heretics" 
were slain with the sword — "yea they have slain the serv- 
ants with the edge of the sword . . . "■ — precipitated 
from rocks, thrown on the points of hooks and daggers, 
hanged, roasted over slow fires, and exposed to shame 
and torture of every description. 



100 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

The massacre in Paris on Saint Bartholomew's day, 
August 24th, 1572 A. D., equalled in cruelty, but ex- 
ceeded in extent the massacres of Merindol and Orange. 
The tolling of the tocsin at midnight, August 
23rd, gave the signal of destruction, and the dreadful 
scenes of Merindol and Orange began to be re-enacted 
against the hated Huguenots. The carnival of death 
lasted seven days ; the city flowed with human blood. 
Accounts of the killed vary from 5,000 to 10,000. Mar- 
tyn's History of the Huguenots, places the number at 
20,000. On the preceding day, special messengers were 
dispatched in every direction, ordering a general mas- 
sacre of the Huguenots. The same scenes were accord- 
ingly enacted in nearly all the provinces, and estimates 
of the number slain, vary from 25,000 to 70,000 — "yea 
they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword." 

In 1641, Anti-Christ proclaimed a "war of religion" 
in Ireland, and called on the people to massacre the Pro- 
testants by every means in their power. . . . Pro- 
testant blood flowed freely throughout Ireland ; houses 
were reduced to ashes, and villages were almost de- 
stroyed. ... In the province of Ulster alone, 154,- 
000 Protestants were either massacred, or expelled from 
Ireland. The council of Oxford, in 1160, consigned a 
company of Waldenses, who had emigrated from Gas- 
cony to England, to the secular arm — "the Sabeans" — 
for punishment. Accordingly, King Henry II. ordered 
them, men and women, to be publicly whipped, branded 
on the cheek with a red-hot iron, and driven half-naked 
out of the city in the dead of the winter. 

Frederick, the Emperor of Germany, A. D. 1224, sen- 
tenced heretics of every description, alive to the flames 
— "and has burned up the sheep and the servants and 
consumed them." Eouis, King of France, A. D. 1228, 
published laws for the extirpation of heresy, and en- 
forced them. . . . He forced Raymond, Count of 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 101 

Toulouse, to undertake the extermination of heresy from 
his dominions, without sparing friend or vassal. 

The Inquisition, or "Holy Office." 

To Dominic, the leading spirit of the crusades, is 
ascribed the "honor" of inventing the infernal Inquisi- 
tion, though Benedict, who is zealous in ascribing to 
"Saint" Dominic the "honor" of being the first Inquisitor' 
General, is doubtful as to whether the idea first sug- 
gested itself to Pope "Innocent," or to "Saint" Dominic. 
It was first established by Pope Innocent III., in A. D. 
1204. Dominic was a monster, devoid of every feeling of 
compassion, who seemed to find his chief delight in 
scenes of torture and misery. Under his commission 
from Pope Innocent, to punish with confiscation, banish- 
ment and death, the heretics who would not receive his 
gospel, Dominic stimulated the civil magistracy and pop- 
ulace to massacre the heretical Waldenses ; and he at one 
time committed one hundred and eighty Albigenses to 
the flames. 

Torquemada, another famous Inquisitor General, 
furnished a marked illustration of the spirit of Anti- 
Christ. Roman Catholic writers admit that he caused 
ten thousand two hundred and twenty persons, men and 
women, to be burned alive. Llounte, who was for three 
years the Secretary General of the Inquisition, and had 
access to all the documentary evidences, in his report 
published A. D. 1817 — four volumes — shows that between 
the years 1481 and 1808, by order of the "Holy Office" 
alone, no less than 31,000,912 persons were burned alive, 
and nearly 300,000 tortured and condemned to severe 
penances. Every Catholic country in Europe, Asia, and 
America had its Inquisition. Suffice it to say that this 
persecution extended to every country where Papacy had 
a footing — to Germany, Holland, Poland, Italy, England, 



102 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Abyssinia, 
India, Cuba, Mexico, and some South American states." 
— From Russell's Millennial Dawn Series. 

And we are satisfied that in the residue of all these 
burnings and consumings of the flock and the fold of 
Christ, we have found "the ashes" which furnished the 
prophet of Job with materials for his symbol of the deso- 
lation, down in the midst of which he seats his figure of 
the fallen Christ, in the smitten body of his persecuted 
people. And that it was so, and only so, that Satan went 
forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with 
sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. What 
remains now is but to show what is signified by the tak- 
ing of a potsherd to scrape himself withal, by the smit- 
ten patriarch of Uz ; for this circumstance, insignificant 
as it may seem, and as it would be, were it simply a rec- 
ord of an incident in the experience of a patriarch of the 
ancient days, becomes, under interpretation, a circum- 
stance of very great significance — a necessary link in the 
chain of prophetic correspondences to the facts and phe- 
nomena of Christian history in the order of their occur- 
rence. 

Now a "potsherd," in the specific sense and meaning 
of the word, is a piece of broken pottery ; but in the ge- 
neric sense, which is the sense in which the word is used 
here, it signifies a Remnant, or a small part of what is 
left of a Whole, x\nd by turning now to Isaiah, 1 :6, 7, 
8, 9, and reading there the prophet's description of the 
straits to which Judah is reduced because of her rebel- 
lion against "the Holy One of Israel," and how she is 
saved by a "remnant," we may be assisted in under- 
standing what is meant here by scraping with a "pots- 
herd" — that it is cleansing and saving by a remnant, and 
also what that remnant was : 

"From the sole of the foot even unto the 

head there is no soundness in it ; but wounds, 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 103 

and bruises, and putrefying sores; they have 
not been closed, neither bound up, neither mol- 
lified with ointment. 

"Your country is desolate, your cities are 
burned with fire: your land, strangers devour 
it in your presence, and it is desolate, as over- 
thrown by strangers. 

"And the daughter of Zion is left as a cot- 
tage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of 
cucumbers, as a besieged city. 

"Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us 
a very small remnant, we should have been as 
Sodom, and we should have been like unto Go- > 
morrah." 

No better description of the state of the Protestant 
Body, after the Papacy had expended its fury upon it, 
covering it with "wounds and bruises, and putrefying 
sores . . . from the sole of the foot even unto the 
head," could have been written, than this. Then in a 
further prophecy of what should befall Israel, he says : 

"And it shall come to pass in that day that 
the remnant of Israel and such as are escaped 
of the house of Jacob, shall no more stay upon 
him that smote them : but shall stay upon the 
Lord, the Holy One of Israel in truth. 

"The remnant shall return, even the rem- 
nant of Jacob, unto the mighty God." 

And now at the period of the Reformation, the six- 
teenth century A. D., the Christ of God took the small 
remnant that was left unto him of his church, and with 
it cleansed himself of the corruptions of his worship, 
which Satan had covered him with, from the sole of his 
foot to the crown of his head, and out of it made a new 
church. And that "very small remnant" which "the 



104 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Lord of hosts'' had left unto him, was the little church 
of the Reformation. They no more stayed upon them 
that smote them ; but trusting no more in the power of 
pope or prelate, either to bless or to ban them, they came 
out from among them, and stayed upon "the Lord, the 
holy one of Israel in truth." This, and nothing more, nor 
less, than this, is the real and true significance of these 
few simple but inspired and prophetic words of the text : 

"And he took him a potsherd to scrape him- 
self withal; and he sat down among the ashes." 

This Little Church, this "very small remnant" of 
the first church, now grown rich and great and powerful, 
and corrupt in proportion — was set down "among the 
ashes" of all its old desolations, with others yet to come, 
for from a century to two centuries more of persecution 
lay yet before it ; so it was literally among the ashes 
that it was set down — ashes behind it, before it, and 
ashes all around it. And the Christ was using it — here 
under the figure of a "potsherd" — to cleanse his worship 
of all the corruptions, here under the figure of "sore 
boils," which Anti-Christ, here called "Satan," had smit- 
ten him with, from sole to crown, here under the figure 
of Job of Uz, who is the Christ; and Uz, the Earth. 



CHAPTER XII. 
The Wife of Job— The Church in Apostacy. 

Had the family record of so great and renowned a 
patriarch as Job is represented to have been, in his day, 
been that of a real person, his one only wife would have 
had a larger place therein, than is here given to her. As 
it is, she is mentioned only once, and then, after the fate 
of all the other members of the family has been settled: 
Her seven sons have all been killed, her three daughters 
are homeless wanderers on the earth, her husband robbed 
of all his great wealth, and last of all, smitten down 1 to 
the ground by the hand of Satan, before she, the wife 
and mother of the family, appears upon the scene at all. 
And then her role on the stage of the drama is a very 
brief one ; she speaks a few words, less than a dozen in 
all, and then disappears as suddenly as she comes to view, 
and is seen or heard from no more. 

And, strangest of all, in the account of the great 
family reunion, after the patriarch has been restored to 
health, and of wealth, God has given twice as much as he 
had before, and again he has about him, seven sons and 
three daughters, together with all his brethren and sis- 
ters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance be- 
fore, his wife is not mentioned at all, as either present or 
absent, at or from this happy family, and all-around 
festal scene. Presumably, dead, her death has no record 



106 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

or mention made of it. All of these things unite to cast 
suspicion upon it, as the family record of the once be- 
reaved, but now restored patriarch of Uz ; everything re- 
stored to him, except his wife, and no mention made of 
her absence, or of what has become of her. 

A strange omission from a narrative of actual cir- 
cumstances, this would be indeed. But when it is once 
understood that by the faithless wife of Job is repre- 
sented the apostate Bride of Christ, or the Church in 
apostacy, the strangeness of her absence from the scene 
of her husband's restoration entirely ceases ; she has long 
since ceased to be his wife, having separated herself from 
him, having played the harlot with many lovers, and 
committed many fornications with the kings of the earth. 
She has therefore, no place nor part in the celebration of 
the restoration of the husband whom she has betrayed 
and abandoned ; she is as far as possible from such a 
scene as this, still playing the harlot with her lovers for 
whom she abandoned Him. While yet his wife, in name, 
and when at last her husband has been smitten with sore 
boils from sole to crown by Satan, and has sat down 
among the ashes, and has taken a potsherd to scrape him- 
self withal, the wife of. Job comes for the first and last 
time on the scene, not to help and encourage him to still 
maintain his integrity towards God, but to tempt him to 
curse God and die, as per the record, which is not record, 
but representation : 

Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still 
retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die. 

"The words of a wicked woman" — says Gesenius in 
his learned, but unenlightened commentary, being ap- 
parently without a suspicion of the purely typical and 
solely representative character and function of this most 
repulsive figure of the entire cast, from Satan down to 
herself. And in this connection much speculation has 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 107 

been made on the question whether "brk aleim" is used 
more or less often in the Hebrew, for "curse God," or 
for "bless God." Interpretation is the surest and best 
test of translation ; and here, under interpretation, it is 
quite clear that the word "curse" has been correctly so 
rendered. The entire role of the wife-figure is that of the 
Temptress of the Faith ; and had Job yielded to this 
temptation of hers to curse God for what he had per- 
mited Satan to inflict upon him, the prophecy of Satan 
that he would curse God to his face, would the Lord but 
put forth his hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, 
would have been fulfilled ; and it is to do exactly what 
Satan had said he would do, that his wife now tempts 
him. And so all speculation as to whether bless God, or 
curse God, is intended, comes to an end ; it is to curse 
God, that his wife tempts Job. 

Moreover, this figure of the "wife" is but another 
one of the several subtle changes of form and name of 
the original "Satan" of the drama. First, he comes 
among the sons of God in his own form and name, as 
Satan ; as such, he gets leave of the Lord to take away all 
that Job has ; then he goes forth from the presence of 
the Lord, and reappears in the name and person of his 
imps, the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, and takes Job's 
living wealth all away, and kills the most of his men. 
Next, he returns to his original person, and reappears 
among the sons of God, and gets further permission to 
tempt Job to curse God, by smiting him with sore boils 
from sole to crown. This done, he now comes in the 
form and name of the wife of Job, and by the words of 
her mouth tempts him in another way to "curse God 
and die." All of these things are but so many shifting 
forms and phases, with appropriate changes of names 
and modes of action, of the prime actor Satan, in the 
wars of Christ and Anti-Christ. 

When it is once known and understood that the fig- 



108 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

ure of Job sitting in ashes and scraping himself with "a 
potsherd" to cleanse away the corruption oozing from 
the sore boils which Satan had smitten him with, from 
the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, is that of 
the smitten body of Protestant Christianity in after cent- 
uries, when the Inquisition had done its deadly work 
upon it, then, and not until then, the real meaning and 
application of these few but fateful words of the wife of 
Job, as addressed to him, can be clearly seen and cor- 
rectly made. The wife of Job is simply a figure for the 
once pure and spotless Bride of Christ, the Primitive 
Christian Church, now become an Apostate ; or in the 
words of the prophet Isaiah, quoted at the head of this 
chapter, the once "faithful city" now "become an harlot." 
At first it was full of judgment; and "righteousness 
lodged in it, but now murderers." 

These words of the wife of Job, "curse God and die," 
are as easily translated into the logic of the "Holy Of- 
fice" as were the words of Satan to the Lord: ". 
touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face." 
When at last the smitten body of Organic Protestantism 
lay prostrate under the heel of the Papal-Roman Hier- 
archy, "covered with wounds and bruises and putrefying 
sores" from its sole to its crown, but still living, and still 
to live, for this is It of whom the Lord had said to Satan, 
". . . but save his life," then the condition on which 
the massacre of Protestant Christians should be stayed, 
was that of the Renunciation of their Faith in Christ as 
the Supreme Head of the Church, and the acknowledg- 
ment of the Pope as such, in His place. And whether it 
is said, "Curse God and die," or "Renounce your faith, 
and live," it is all one and the same thing, since he who 
forswears his faith in God to save his life, curses God and 
dies the death of his soul ; and since he who saves his life 
in such a way as that, loses his life in such a way as this : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 109 

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose 
it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake 
shall find it."— Matthew, 16:25. 

Then the answer which Job makes to his wife, cor- 
responds to and represents the practical reply made by 
the martyred church to its murderers when they tempted 
it to curse God and die, by denying their Lord to save 
their lives, as here foretold : 

"But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one 
of the foolish women speaketh. What ! shall we 
receive good at the hand of God, and shall we 
not receive evil ? In all this did not Job sin with 
his lips." 

And this was practically the answer of the martyred 
body of Christians, which Job, in his sore afflictions rep- 
resents in a single person, whose very name, chosen for 
him, preindicates his martyrdom. They said to the per- 
secuting "Mother Church," 

"Thou speakest as one of the foolish women 
speaketh. What ! shall we receive good at the 
hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" 

And in all this they sinned not with their lips, 
neither did they charge God foolishly, as is said of Job, 
in assuming that it was by divine permission that all of 
these great calamities had come upon them. The Christ 
himself had foretold them of these things that were to 
befall them in the latter days. Neither is this the only 
place in scripture where the church in apostacy is de- 
scribed under the figure of a fallen woman. 

The Revelation of Saint John, written at or near 
the close of the first century A. D., is professedly of 
"things which must shortly come to pass," and is of 
substantially the same things as is the revelation of St. 



110 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Job. The main difference is in the mode of revelation; 
that of St. John being largely by visions shown to the 
opened eye, while that of St. Job, is through figures of 
speech told to the opened ear ; the one is full of form and 
rich in color, while the other is wholly void of both; yet 
they are, each in its own way, revelations of the same 
things. In Revelation, 17:3, 4, 5, 6, we read: 

"So he carried me away in the spirit into the 
wilderness : and I saw a woman sit upon a scar- 
let colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, 
having seven heads and ten horns. 

"And the woman was arrayed in purple and 
scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious 
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her 
hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her 
fornication : 

"And upon her forehead was a name writ- 
ten, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, 
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOM- 
INATIONS OF THE EARTH. 

"And I saw the woman drunken with the 
blood of the saints, and with the blood of the 
martyrs of Jesus : and when I saw her, I won- 
dered with great admiration." 

Now the point and practical application of all this is, 
that the gem-laden and bedizened harlot of the Johanic 
revelation is the same woman as the undraped and re- 
pulsive hag, crying out of the wilderness of sin, to her 
much afflicted and fallen Lord, "Curse God and die." 
We know that temporal Babylon was never "drunken 
with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the 
martyrs of Jesus," and that Spiritual Babylon, the Apos- 
tate Church, was drunken and drenched with their blood, 
from the time of the setting up of the Inquisition in the 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 111 

dawn of the thirteenth century A. D., until its enforced 
abandonment five to six centuries later. 

The "wilderness" into which the Seer of Patmos 
was "carried away in the spirit," was the same "wilder- 
ness" from whence came the "great wind" which smote 
the four corners of the house in which the seven son* 
and three daughters of Job were feasting together, and 
it fell upon the young men, and they were dead — the 
wilderness of Papal Rome. And the woman he saw sit- 
ting on "a scarlet colored beast" was, in another way at 
work, the same woman the Sage of Uz heard in the spirit, 
called the "wife" of Job — the Apostate Church. On both 
of these occasions in prophecy, being one and the same 
in history, she appears in the role of the Temptress of 
the faith of Christ. 

The two figures of the one "woman'' simply are 
placed at the two opposite poles of Temptation ; the one 
figure is that of temptation by Adversity — the wife 
figure ; the other, that of temptation by Prosperity — the 
''woman" figure. This last one represents the Apostate 
Church at the summit of her worldly prosperity and 
power, crimes and corruptions. She is accordingly cos- 
tumed to represent her character : In purple, to show 
forth her royalty : in scarlet, her criminality. The gold 
and precious stones and pearls with which her raiment 
is decked, are emblems of the profits of her many profit- 
able sales of her virtue, of her fornications with the kings 
of the earth ; for she is the once "faithful city, become an 
harlot." 

But now behold the same woman, the same temp- 
tress, at the opposite extreme of temptation, that of Ad- 
versity. There is nothing alluring to the eye or ear, nor 
to any of the senses, nor to the soul, in adversity. Pov- 
erty is naked of necessary apparel ; much more is it des- 
titute of all kinds of adornment. Accordingly, the 
temptress here is unapparelled in any way ; there is 



112 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

nought of the glitter, none of the gaud so appropriate 
to her in her role of the temptress by prosperity. We 
can only think of her as a hag of Satan, stripped of all 
outside show of virtue, revealing to full view all the 
inborn and native ugliness of sin, as it is in itself. And 
we can only hear her as a Voice shrieking out of the 
black wilderness of all wickedness and blasphemy: 
"Curse God and die!" 

The wife of Job is but one of the many subtle 
changes of form and name of the Satan of the drama, 
all of which is resolvable into a forecast of the war of 
Christ and Anti-Christ, with victory for the Christ, in 
its Epilogue, or outcome of all. She is a figure of the 
Bride of Christ — the church — at the period of its Great 
Apostacy. And she is not present at the family reunion 
of the long and deeply afflicted, but now restored 
patriarch, because she had "played the harlot with many 
lovers," and long since ceased to be his wife. 

Then the reason why she is brought on the stage of 
the drama so much later than the sons and daughters, 
is because that they are designed to represent the church 
in its infancy or earlier years, while §he, the wife, rep- 
resents it at a much later period, or that of the great 
Apostacy. For there is a chronological, or time-order 
observed and kept throughout the work from first to last, 
whereby its correspondences appear in the same order of 
succession in which the things which they represent 
appear on the page of their fulfilling history. This, by 
the way, being one other of the many evidences of the 
superhuman and divine origin of the work, Great Swe- 
denborg to the contrary notwithstanding, who says, "It 
is full of correspondences, but not like the true Word ;" 
and that it lacks the "serial connection" so apparent in 
other books of the Bible. 

Yet it is this same serial ^connection that is one of 
the strongest features of the work, and which is our main 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 113 

reliance in presenting an orderly and consecutive inter- 
pretation thereof, from beginning to end ; without this 
orderly relation of its parts, and connection of its series 
of parts, we could make nothing of it more than a ram- 
bling discourse on the providences of God, mixed with 
biographies of persons heretofore, and hereafter, unheard 
of. As it is, the bringing of the figure of the wife of Job 
so long after that of his offspring, into the family record 
of so great a family man as he — something quite out of 
the natural order of things— is itself a maintaining of the 
prophetic order and sequence of the narrative in perfect 
correspondence with the order and sequence of the 
events of that history, of which it is all one great shadow 
forecast. For that which they represent comes earlier, 
on the page of both prophecy and history, and that which 
she represents comes later, and so the serial connection 
of the prophetic narrative is perfectly maintained to the 
end. And the angel said to the seer : 

"And the woman which thou sawest is that 
great city, which reigneth over the kings of the 
earth." 

And as she is a gorgeously spectacular figure of the 
apostate church at the summit of her temporal power and 
prosperity, having sold herself into the service of Satan, 
and gotten "all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory 
of them" as her reward, with the signs and emblems 
thereof shown in her costume, and displayed in its adorn- 
ments, so the woman whom we here see, or hear, as the 
sinful and wicked wife of Job, is the same "woman" seen 
by the Island seer of Revelation : only here she is at the 
opposite pole of extreme temptation, Adversity. And 
although she here represents the church at exactly the 
same period of historic time as when seated on the "scar- 
let colored beast, full of names of blasphemy," here she 
is divested of all outward signs and symbols of pros- 



114 , THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

perity in order to indicate her inward and spiritual 
nakedness, poverty, and squalor, all too hideous to be de- 
scribed in the words of another, and left to be heard only 
in a Voice from the Inferno crying out of its blackness, 
"Curse God and die !" Nowhere in all the prophecies of 
Anti-Christ, his doings or sayings, can there be found 
so powerfully condensed and meaning-full a formula of 
the same, as in these words of the wife of Job. 

And here, as she appears in this place and capacity, 
as a temptress of the faith by the terrors of extreme ad- 
versity, there shall be another name written, not to take 
aught from, nor to add aught to, the words of that other 
revelation of the same things, but only to indicate the 
difference between her two methods of temptation — the 
one, by dazzling allurements of the senses and imagina- 
tions of men to lead them away from the worship of 
their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to fall down and 
worship her. The other, by holding up before them, and 
inflicting upon them, the terrors of the dungeon, the rack, 
the stake — so to tempt them to deny the faith of Christ, 
and save their lives ; or in effect, to "curse God and die." 
And here under her old name is her new name written : 

The Faithless Wife of Job — 
The Apostate Bride of Christ, 
And Temptress of the Faith 
By the Terror of the Cross — 
The Back-Slidden Church. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Three Friends of Job— "Forgers of Lies and 
Physicians of No Value." 

"Behold, I will make them of the syna- 
gogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and 
are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to 
come and worship before thy feet, and to know 
that I have loved thee." — Revelation, 3 :9. 

"Now when Job's three friends heard of all 
this evil that was come upon him, they came 
every one from his own place ; Eliphaz the 
Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar 
the Naamathite : for they had made an appoint- 
ment together to come to mourn with him, and 
to comfort him. 

"And when they lifted up their eyes afar 
off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice 
and wept ; and they rent every one his mantle, 
and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward 
heaven. 

"So they sat down with him upon the 
ground seven days and seven nights, and none 
spake a word unto him : for they saw that his 
grief was very great." 



116 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

There is always a good deal of worse than barren 
sympathy for a good man in affliction, on the part of 
the wicked world. They admire and respect him out- 
wardly, and are his "friends," outwardly. But inwardly, 
in their heart of hearts, they hate and despise him ; for 
he is spiritually minded, and they are carnally minded; 
and "the carnal mind is enmity against God," not only, 
but against all who are of God. And when they make 
an appointment together to "come to mourn with him, 
and to comfort him," they are always sure to be "forgers 
of lies" in what they say, and "physicians of no value," 
in what they do to comfort him. And when they lift up 
their eyes and behold him, it is always "afar off;" and 
always, they know him not. Neither indeed, can they 
know him ; for he is out of their sight, and beyond their 
power of perception. 

But while this is always and everywhere true in gen- 
eral, here these three men are three selected types of an 
alien people in particular — the Jews — and are repre- 
sentative of the attitude of that people towards the 
Christ at his advent among them, first of all, and after- 
ward of all who were, or are, like unto them. When the 
"man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," came to 
his own "they lifted up their eyes afar off" — in the spir- 
itual sense — "and knew him not." Having eyes, they 
saw him not, as the Son of God ; having ears, they heard 
him not, as the Wisdom of God; having hearts, they 
were hardened against him, as the Messenger of God. 
For these were they of whom it had been written : 

"Make the heart of this people fat, and 
make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest 
they see with their eyes, and hear with their 
ears, and understand with their heart, and con- 
vert, and be healed." — Isa., 6:10. 

Here, of the same, in the form of a story, and in the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 117 

more compact phrase of this prophet, it is simply said 
they "knew him not." Specifically, these three represent 
three leading classes of the Jewish people, the Chief 
Priests, the Scribes, the Pharisees. And now the secret 
is out as to the strange limitation of the friends of so 
great and renowned a person as Job, to a poor, pitiful 
three ; it is a representative story, and three was the 
precise number needed for its purpose in this place. And 
now to read it understandingly, in this place, it must be 
perceived that these three persons represent three 
classes of people, not only, but the whole spirit, policy 
and animus of the Jews toward Christianity. 

The critics tell us that the failure of the three friends 
of Job to recognize him when they beheld him afar off, 
was owing to his greatly changed personal appearance 
from that it had been before his affliction and downfall 
from his former high estate and great prosperity. And 
were this a record of real and actual circumstances 
which had occurred as related, which it is not, instead 
of an invented and constructed figure of something far 
greater than itself, which it is, then this would have been 
the most natural and probable thing to be thought of. 
As it is, it does not touch the subject in its vital part as a 
constructed type of the failure of the Jews as a people, 
with a few individual exceptions, to recognize their long 
prophesied and expected Messiah, in a poor Galileean 
peasant, with not where to lay his head, and of whom it 
had been written by another prophet, Isaiah, that "he 
hath no form nor comeliness ; and when we shall see 
him, there is no beauty that we should desire him;" and 
that "his visage was so marred more than any man, and 
his form more than the sons of men." 

At the time of his advent, his coming unto his own, 
who "received him not," they were under the galling 
yoke of the Roman government ; and the hope and ex- 
pectation of the coming of their Messiah had never been 



118 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

pitched so high, nor so eagerly entertained as now. But 
their conception of him and of his office when he should 
come, was like that of the Greeks, of Alexander, of the 
Persians, of Darius — that of a great military chieftain 
with an equally commanding genius for conquest and for 
construction, who should break from off their neck the 
yoke of the hated Roman, lead them to victory over all 
their enemies, and restore the old days of their national 
greatness and glory, with himself at their head as their 
temporal king. And now that he, in obedience to the 
will of God, had descended from his high estate, where 
in heaven he had borne "the second name," that of the 
Son of God, and become the "Son of man," and so, sub- 
ject to the trials, temptations, and buffetings of the 
Devil, he was so changed from all their conceptions of 
him and his state, that when they "lifted up their eyes 
afar off" they "knew him not." 

And this is what is represented by the bringing 
down of Job from his former high estate, as the beloved 
Servant of God, and subjecting him to the trials, tempta- 
tions and buffetings of Satan, as described in the text. 
And this is what is meant by making his "friends" fail 
to recognize him in his changed estate. What then is 
signified by their lifting up their voice to weep, and rend- 
ing their garments, and sprinkling dust on their heads 
toward heaven? They are made in this manner to ex- 
haust the repertoire of Eastern ceremonial for such occa- 
sions ready made and provided, to represent their grief 
at the disappointment of their high pitched hopes and 
expectations of a Messiah of their own fashioning, who 
should do what they wished and willed, instead of what 
God willed him to do. Great was their disappointment, 
and deep their chagrin when they beheld him as the 
meek and lowly Jesus, a "man of sorrows and acquainted 
with grief," and without where to lay his head, and who 
proclaimed a kingdom not of this world — instead of the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 119 

mail-clad and mighty conqueror who was to lay the 
kingdoms of the world at their feet, whom they had ex- 
pected. 

In a drama of Messianism like this, with its leading 
human character a constructed type and person-figure 
of the personal Christ, or Messiah, and with three con- 
structed types of the people to whom he was first to 
come, the Jews, and by them be rejected because of the 
lowliness of the state down into which he had come out 
of high heaven, there was no other possible way to so 
successfully represent their sorrow at the sight of fallen 
ideal as the way actually chosen — that of representing 
the three nominal friends of the fallen patriarch as going 
through the formalities of grief and sorrow at the sight 
of their stricken friend, and of the condition to which 
he had come, as compared to the high estate from which 
he had descended, even as the Christ from heaven above, 
to the earth below. 

What now remains is to ascertain what is signified 
by their sitting down on the ground with him, seven 
days and seven nights, without any one of them speaking 
a word to him during all of this long period of time. 
"Not without refreshments during all this time," says 
one kind-hearted critic, who sees clearly enough the' 
tedium of the situation, but not at all the absurdity of 
supposing it to have been an actual one, as here related. 
Others get what comfort they can out of it by quoting 
other examples from scripture, where seven days of 
mourning were appointed and kept. The Israelites 
mourned for Jacob seven days. Ezekiel sat on the 
ground with the captives at Chebar, and mourned with 
them and for them, seven days. "Seven days do men 
mourn for him that is dead," they quote ; but nowhere in 
scripture except here in Job, do they find any account 
of sitting down on the ground wnth a dying man for 



120 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

seven days and seven nights, and no one speaking a word 
to him on account of the greatness of his grief. 

To look at this matter for a moment from the literal 
point of view, it would seem that the greater the grief, 
the greater should be the urgency to say or do some- 
thing to assuage it as speedily as possible. But there is 
something in the immediate context itself which shows 
that the situation is not, and never was intended to be 
thought of as a real and actual one, and it is this : no 
sooner does one of these long silent sitters on the ground 
with this erstwhile dying man, the thread of whose life 
is so thinly attenuated that the breath of a spoken word 
might snap it, venture to speak a word to him, and that, 
very cautiously, than up he springs into abounding life 
and vigor, and delivers offhand a powerful and masterly 
oration, which, as do all of his speeches thereafter, smells 
much more of the oil in the midnight lamp of some great 
scholar and poet in the prime and vigor of both his 
bodily and his intellectual manhood, than it does of the 
ash heap of a dying man feebly trying to scrape him- 
self partly clean of some of the corruption oozing from 
the sore boils which he is covered with from the sole of 
his foot to the crown of his head. 

These things show us clearly enough, all of us who 
are willing to be shown, and are unhampered by precon- 
ceived or inherited notions of the subject — that the 
whole situation is a contrived one from start to finish, 
and for some representative purpose of some kind. The 
quotations of scripture made by the critics to show that 
this seven-day and seven-night period of mourning is in 
accord with ancient custom, have no bearing on the case 
before us, for they are from real history, while this is 
prophecy. And here the numbers are symbolical, while 
there they are literal numbers of seven literal days. In 
prophecy a "day" never means a day of twenty-four 
hours, but always an undefined period of time, with its 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 121 

events ; it may include centuries of secular time, and 
still be a "day," as intended by the term, in relation to 
the future. It is so here. 

Here the number seven, of the days and nights of 
silent mourning-, has the same significance as in the 
enumeration of the sons of Job, and of his sheep ; he had 
seven sons and seven thousand sheep ; these numbers 
have been shown to signify Entirety, as applied to the 
sons and to the sheep of the figure of the Christ, who is 
called "Job." Here the sitting down on the ground with 
Job, on the part of his nominal friends, for seven days 
and seven nights in unbroken silence, because his grief 
was seen by them to be too great for words to inter- 
meddle with, is significant of the entire period of time 
during which the afflicted church sat down, as it were, 
among the ashes of all its great desolations, while all 
that part of the civilized world who were its nominal 
friends, sat by, as it were, without doing or saying aught 
to assuage or mitigate so great a grief that all the world 
saw it could only wait in silence for the end of its great- 
est tragedy. 

In no other instance than this, recorded in scripture, 
is there anything said of a seven days' and seven nights' 
period of mourning; all of the others are simply seven- 
day periods of so many literal days. This is a symbolical 
period covering centuries of secular time ; and it is made 
to consist of seven days and seven nights to indicate the 
ceaseless sorrow, both day and night, of the persecuted 
and desolated church throughout that long, dark period of 
Christian history now known as the "dark ages," during 
which its grief was so "very great" as to be beyond in- 
tervention by any human agency, and comfortless by any 
spoken words of human speech. Thus ends the pro- 
logue or preface of the great Messianic drama of today, 
which is called the Book of Job. 

It has contained a forecast of the leading events of 



122 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the Christian era from the birth of Christ to the era of 
the Reformation. First, of the Christ, the beloved Son 
of God, under the figure of Job, the beloved Servant of 
the Lord. Then, of the intrigues of Anti-Christ, under 
the coming of Satan among the sons of God. Next, of 
the church in apostacy, under the figure of the faithless 
wife. Then, of the temptations which the faithful 
were to experience, by the taking away of the substance 
of Job. Of their fidelity, by the maintainance of his 
integrity under this temptation. Then, of the alliance 
of the Church with the State, as the grand master stroke 
of Satanic strategy, by the second coming of Satan 
among the sons of God, now as a leading member of the 
apostate church, and Director in Chief of its policies. 

Then, of the setting up of the "Holy Office," or of 
the Inquisition, in 1204, by the smiting of the patriarch 
with sore boils from sole to crown. Of the primitive 
church of Christ, under the figure of the "sons of God." 
And lastly, of the long and deep desolation of Protest- 
ant Christianity, without earthly comforters, by the sit- 
ting in ashes of the deeply afflicted servant of God, while 
his false friends sit around him in unbroken silence for 
seven days and seven nights, for that they saw his grief 
was very great. Of the gradual coming on of the 
Reformation, in the figure of the smitten man of Uz 
scraping himself clean of corruption with a potsherd. 

And here, with the bruised and bleeding body of 
Protestant Christendom sitting in ashes, yet laboring to 
cleanse and rid itself of the "putrefying sores" which 
Satan had sown upon it, that it might be presented a 
clean body unto Christ, "a living sacrifice, holy, accept- 
able unto God," the curtain falls upon the stage of the 
great drama of Christ, versus Anti-Christ, in the midst 
of the historic correspondences to which, we are now, 
today, have been from the beginning of Christian his- 
tory, and will be to the end. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Lamentations of Job. (Job iii.) 

"As when Immanuel's orphaned cry 
The universe had shaken.'' — E. B. Browning. 

With this, the third chapter of the book, the poem 
proper begins ; like the Exordium, it begins at the com- 
mencement of the Christian era, and under the figure of 
the lamentations of Job, it sets forth the sorrows of the 
Christ. No attempt shall be made here to expound the 
specific meaning of each of the twenty-six A^erses of this 
chapter, but only to show its Messianic meaning as a 
whole, and to make the application of a verse or two here 
and there. The first verse reads : 

"After this opened Job his mouth, and 
cursed his day." 

That is, after the long period of silence between him 
and his three friends. "Cursed his day" is simply a 
strong oriental form of expression for deplored the fact 
of his existence, implying no such idea of profanity as is 
usually associated with cursing. Now a man does not 
very often curse his day, nor anything else, in such 
highly poetic and melodious phrase as Job is here made 
to employ in giving vent to his overwrought feelings; 
he is not apt to take much pains to measure his periods 
nor to polish his speech up to the high standard of lit- 



124 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

erary art and excellence which we observe here in the 
lamentations of Job from his ash heap, when he has lost 
all he had, including his family, and has himself been 
smitten down to the ground and covered with wounds 
and bruises and putrefying sores from sole to crown. 
Under such conditions as these, we would hardly expect 
to hear him deliver an oflhand oration of such eloquence 
and spirit as would do credit to a great scholar and poet 
in his hour of inspiration and of perfect ease. 

The critics all have seen themselves obliged to rec- 
ognize the incongruity between this speech of Job, and 
his state of body and mind, and have sought to reconcile 
the discrepancy by assuming that Job, after his restora- 
tion to health and equanimity of mind, remembered 
what a rough speech he had made when he was in his 
great extremity of misery, and wrote it all up at his 
leisure, and made of it the masterpiece of poetic beauty 
and all-round literary excellence that it is, in its present 
form. But how he managed to make it uniform in style 
of composition, not only with all the rest of his speeches 
as they now are, but with all of those of his three friends, 
and that of the Lord, from the whirlwind, they have not 
yet explained. 

The only possible and satisfying explanation of the 
superexcellence as literature, of this first speech of Job, 
and of all his other speeches as well, all purporting to 
have been delivered offhand in a time of trial and deep 
distress, is simply this : that he never delivered them at 
all ; neither offhand, nor in any way or manner what- 
ever ; but that they are all alike the product of the pen of 
the great scholar and poet who was the author of the 
book in its entirety. This is the real secret of the whole 
matter. Types and figures of prophesy never make 
speeches of any kind, offhand or prepared, of their own 
motion, but act and speak as they are made to do by 
their creators. And the author of this drama, having 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 125 

created his "Job," as the leading human character therein, 
it necessarily follows that what he wishes him to say, 
and in whatever way he wishes it said, he puts it into 
his mouth to say it. And here, having brought his hero 
into that state of mind in which he feels himself forsaken 
of God, he fills his mouth with great and loud lamenta- 
tions, all of which are translatable into that world- 
thrilling cry of the Christ from his cross : '-'My God, 
my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 

Then when it is understood that it is not of the sor- 
row of the personal Christ alone that these long and loud 
lamentations of Job are representative, but also of cent- 
uries of the sorrows of his crucified church in after 
times, of which he himself forewarned it, then it is seen 
that the prophet does not make the lamentations of his 
figure either too long or too loud, and that the language 
is not too diffusive, nor the illustrations too copious nor 
varied ; this were a criticism which might well be placed 
against them were this merely an account of the af- 
flictions and sorrows of a patriarch of the ancient days, 
and whose name happened to be Job ; in this case there 
would be a wide disproportion between the small oc- 
casion, and the lengthy and highly elaborate treatment 
of it. 

But this is not the case; the subject is the Passion of 
the Christ, prolonged in his people through many cent- 
uries of crucifixion upon his Cross. And now, consid- 
ering the very greatness of the theme, the long drawn- 
out agonies and outcries of the figure of it all, take their 
place among those other marvels of powerful condensa- 
tions of infinite meaning within finite space with which 
the whole work abounds. And all of those criticisms on 
the conduct of Job in this connection, charging him with 
"sinful repining," and with conduct inconsistent with his 
former reverent submission to the will of God, become 
puerile in the extreme when we realize who it is that is 



126 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

represented here in the sorrows and the lamentations of 
Job — that it is him who cried out in the anguish of his 
spirit unto God, asking why he had forsaken him, even 
as his image is made to do here. 

We know of a certainty that Jesus never uttered the 
words here put in the mouth of his image which is called 
Job ; but we now know that he, of an equal certainty, 
suffered all the anguish of mind and spirit which Job is 
made to suffer in representation of Him. ,; And it is here 
in this revelation by sign and symbol, that we gain a 
broader and clearer insight of the inner state of Jesus 
in the times of his sore trials and temptations than else- 
where in the entire scriptures. We know by this how, 
and in what way he was tempted, to doubt, to fear, and 
to despair of the mercies of God, even as Job is made 
to do in this picture of his inner state of combat with the 
powers of darkness : 

"For verily he took not on him the nature 
of angels ; but he took on him the seed of Abra- 
ham. 

"Wherefore in all things it behooved him 
to be made like unto his brethren, that he might 
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things 
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for 
the sins of the people. 

"For in that he himself hath suffered being 
tempted, 'he is able to succor them that are 
tempted." — Hebrews, 2:16, 17, 18. 

Now the greatest and most grievous of all the 
temptations to which the followers of Christ are ever 
subjected, is the temptation to doubt the wisdom and the 
love of God, to despair of his mercy, and to feel them- 
selves utterly forsaken of Him. Then they deplore the 
day of their birth unto such a state as this, and wonder 
why they were ever born into such a world to inherit its 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 12 i 

woes. So "opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day," 
and said, 

"Let the day perish wherein .1 was born, 
and the night in which it was said, There is a 
man child conceived.'' 

Then follows a series of imprecations upon that day 
and that night, which are amplifications of the idea of 
this first verse, and need not be quoted here, until the 
eighth Averse is reached, which contains an allusion so 
obscure as to bear special comment ; it reads : 

"Let them curse it that curse the day, who 
are ready to raise up their mourning"." 

Although the critics of Job have utterly failed to 
grasp and apprehend the divine, Messianic idea of it all, 
when it comes to tracing- out the remote origin and der- 
ivation of strange and obscure forms of expression, 
they are skillful enough. And here they have likely 
enough, found that the above quoted verse refers to the 
sorcerers of old who pretended to be able to cast a spell 
of some kind upon certain days, or any particular day, 
to make it an unlucky day, and so to "curse the day." 
"Ready to raise up their mourning," has been variously 
rendered ; in one way, to make it read, "raise up levia- 
than ;" the last word to mean a serpent, or the devil, in 
allusion to their claim to raise serpents up to frenzy, 
and even to conjure up the devil. It is certain that there 
is a deep occult meaning- in the passage, which is with- 
out application to the birthday of the patriarch Job, 
except as a figure of One far greater than himself. 

That One is the Christ ; for had he not suffered the 
same agonies of grief and despair which Job is here rep- 
resented as suffering, he had never known from his own 
experience "to succor them that are tempted" in like 
manner to believe themselves forsaken of God ; and we 



128 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

are told in Hebrews, 4:15, that he "was in all points 
tempted like as we are, yet without sin." 

In verses 20, 21, 22, we read: 

"Wherefore is light given to him that is in 
misery, and life unto the bitter in soul; 

"Which long for death, but it cometh not ; 
and dig for it more than for hid treasures ; 

"Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad 
when they can find the grave?" 

We have only to turn to "the martyrs of Jesus," to 
find a large historic correspondence to this ; for, as said 
before, Job is a figure of the personal Christ, not only, 
but also of his devoted and deeply afflicted followers in 
the way of martyrdom. Wherefore was light given to 
them that were now in such misery as theirs, and where- 
fore life to those who now were forced to drain the bit- 
ter cup of its last dregs? These are legitimate questions; 
they are the outcry of the human in sore distress, both in 
them and in Him. Robbed of their lands, driven from 
their homes, half naked in the dead of winter, slowly 
tortured to death on the rack, roasted alive over slow 
fires, shut up in dungeons slowly to die, they longed for 
death to come, and were glad when they could find the 
grave. 

In verses 23, 24, 25, 

"Why is light given to a man whose way is 
hid, and whom God hath hedged in?" 

"For my sighing cometh before I eat, and 
my roarings are poured out like the waters." 

God had given him light more than to any man be- 
fore or since, that he might be the Light of the world; 
yet he is the man "whom God hath hedged in," as writ- 
ten here, and his way was hid from the world. The 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 129 

kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, were 
his to win, had not God hedged him in so that he might 
not go out of the narrow way appointed for his path from 
the manger to the cross. Yet he had implanted in him 
every one and all of the natural ambitions, and aspira- 
tions of man, all of the affections, appetites, and passions 
of other men. For "in all things it behooved him to 
be made like unto his brethren . . ." 

And all of these things, so near and so dear to his 
brethren, must be given up by him, surrendered and sac- 
rificed to the one supreme end for which he came into 
the world. And this was the true cross, the crucifixion 
of his Soul, compared with which the crucifixion of his 
body must have been a small matter; this lasted but a 
few hours ; that, his whole life in the world. And can we 
suppose that it never had any outcries of the anguish of 
his soul, like these that are wrung from the lips of Job? 
No sad, dark questionings of why, O why, is light given 
to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged 
in? For at first, he had not yet learned perfect obedience 
to the will of his Father, as says Paul : "Though he 
were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which 
he suffered." And no sooner had he heard a voice from 
heaven declaring him to be the Son of God, than he was 
"led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted 
of the devil." 

"And he was there in the wilderness forty 
days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild 
beasts ; and the angels ministered unto him." 

What torments of fear, doubt, and despair he suf- 
fered there in the wilderness, there being infused into 
his mind by Satan, and how it was possibly there, when 
he was with the wild beasts, and with no human ear to 
hear, that his "roarings were poured out like the wa- 
ters," is something without record, unless indeed it is 



130 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

here in this other "Revelation of Jesus Christ," and in 
these high and loud outpourings of the anguish of his 
spirit which we call the Lamentations of Job. Next we 
read : 

"For the thing which I greatly feared is 
come upon me, and that which I was afraid of 
is come unto me." 

This represents the hour of the crucifixion of Christ, 
when the thing which he had greatly feared was now 
come upon him. He had always known who he was, 
that he was the Christ, and that the things which had 
been written of him and of his crucifixion, must surely 
come to pass ; and the dark shadow of that awful hour 
had lain athwart his whole life. And how greatly he still 
feared it, when now it was come upon him, was shown 
by his falling down on the ground and praying that if 
it Were possible, the bitter cup might pass from him. 
And this, all this, and this only, is what is signified and 
foreshadowed in and by the outcry from his ash heap, 
of the smitten Servant of God, who is the Crucified One, 
in a type and figure of Messianic prophecy. 

The long and acrimonious debate between Job and 
his three opposers, supplemented by a fourth speaker, 
Elihu, which now ensues, all hinges on the question, 
What think we of Job ; is he a true servant of the Lord, 
as he claims to be, or is he a rank hypocrite, suffering the 
just penalty of his hidden sins? These all agree to the 
latter proposition, and he defends himself, and counter 
charges them with folly and falsehood.- All of this is 
simply a shadow forecast of the great controversy which 
sprang up in the world at the advent of him who said 
he had not come to send peace on the world, "but a 
sword;" and not to pour water, but "to kindle a fire." 
And the gist of that great controversy was : "What think 
ye of Christ?" Is he the Son of God, as he claims to be, 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 131 

or is he a false pretender to the Messiahship? First and 
foremost among- those who maintained the falsity of his 
claim were the Jews — his own "friends" by birth and na- 
tionality. Their hatred and scorn of him and his claims 
were chiefly manifested through and by the ruling and 
leading classes, the chief priests, the scribes and the 
Pharisees, as chief representatives of the whole Jewish 
spirit and polity. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Eliphaz Answers Job. (Job iv.) 

"Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and 
said." 

First of all, we note that as often as the name of 
each one of these three friends of Job is mentioned, his 
nativity is also given; there is no exception to this from 
first to last ; why is this so, or why was it deemed neces- 
sary to give the nativity of these opponents of Job in 
the first .place? We also observed that in the account 
of their coming together to "comfort" him, it is said that 
"they came every one from his own place." Were this 
a record of actual circumstances, which it is not, and 
had these speakers been real persons, which they were 
not, then their nativities had been of no conceivable ac- 
count, and a quite superfluous bit of information. 

As it is, the whole narrative being purely and 
strictly symbolical and representative, these otherwise 
useless items of information become significant and 
meaningful. The "place" from which or whence they 
come, signifies their sphere of thought, feeling, and influ- 
ence. Accordingly, each one of them assails Job from 
his own particular point of view, or from the place he 
occupies in the Theocracy of Judaism; for this is all the 
quarrel of Judaism versus Christianity, as raised by the 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 133 

official members of the Jewish Church at the Advent of 
Christ. Eliphaz is a very wise man in matters pertain- 
ing to God — from the Jewish point of view — and he is 
chosen to represent the Chief Priests, and their atti- 
tude towards the Christ. He is called "Eliphaz," for the 
significance of the name, which is that of one who is rich 
in the oracles of God. 

In Genesis, 36, we read that one of the sons of Esau 
bore the name, Eliphaz ; and the critics think this may 
have been the same as the Eliphaz of Job ; but it is cer- 
tain that here the name has been chosen and given to 
the first speaker against Job solely for its significance, 
and not as the name of any real person. Then he is 
called a Temanite, because the Temanites were re- 
nowned for the kind of wisdom which his maker puts in 
the words of his "Eliphaz." The same principle holds 
good for the names and nativities of the two other par- 
ticipants in the debate ; the name "Bildad" signifying a 
contender. What he specifically contends for, as against 
Job, is the traditions of the fathers, or venerable authori- 
ties. He is a Scribe; and a "Shuhite," for that his ideas 
are in line with Shuhite thought. Last of all, "Zophar" 
is so called from the signification of the name as that of 
"a chatterer." He is inferior to both the other speakers, 
and his speech consists of mere pious chatter, as his 
piety does of rigid formalities. He is a Pharisee; and a 
Naamathite, for that the Naamathites were Pharisees 
in their ways of thinking and living. 

Coming "every one from his own place," or sphere 
of thought, they come together at one conclusion, name- 
ly : that Job, as he is the greatest of sufferers, he has 
been, and is, the greatest of sinners. What he is now 
suffering,- is but the just and righteous retribution of his 
Maker for his manifold iniquities. This is the whole bur- 
den of their song from start to finish, each one of them 
upholding it from his own peculiar point of view, and 



134 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

illustrating it in his own particular way; Eliphaz in his 
way, Bildad in his way, and Zophar in his way. Precisely 
so, the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees, as- 
sailed the Christ ; each from his own place, or viewpoint, 
and each clique in its own particular way. The chief 
priests hated him because he set their wisdom at nought ; 
the scribes, because he had ho respect for their author- 
ity ; and the Pharisees, because he derided their rigid and 
empty formalities. 

Then we see their doctrine, that of these three false 
doctors of divinity, and which Job opposes so vigorously, 
which is that only the wicked ever suffer great and 
serious calamity, while the righteous are exempt, is that 
same false doctrine of the Jews, which Jesus opposed 
and refuted by examples, saying: 

"Suppose ye that these Galileeans were sin- 
ners above all the Galileeans, because they suf- 
fered such things? 

"I tell you, Nay : but, except ye repent, ye 
shall all likewise perish. 

"Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower 
in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that 
they were sinners above all men that dwelt in 
Jerusalem ? 

"I tell you Nay : but, except ye repent, ye 
shall all likewise perish." 

This was the logic of Eliphaz and his two friends: 
that had not Job been a sinner above all men that dwelt 
in Uz, God would not have suffered him to have been 
destroyed. And this was what the heads of the Jewish 
church said, that had not Jesus been a sinner above all 
them that dwelt in Jerusalem, God would not have suf- 
fered him to have been crucified. Then the answer of 
Job to this : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 135 

"Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; 
yea, return again, my righteousness is in it. 

"Is there iniquity in my tongue? Cannot 
my taste discern perverse things?" 

This was the answer of Jesus to his accusers, im- 
ploring them to let it not be iniquity that had brought 
him to this pass, but to return, and if they could not 
believe in him, return again and believe for the sake of 
the works he had done, thus appealing from himself to 
his works ; "that ye may know, and believe, that the Fa- 
ther is in me, and I in him ;" or in the words of Job, that 
his righteousness was in it. Then, these words imputed 
to Job, in reply to his accusers : 

"Is there iniquity in my tongue? Cannot 
my taste discern perverse things?" 

find their correspondence in the words spoken by Jesus: 
"If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil." Had 
there been any iniquity in his tongue? If so, let them 
show wherein. Could not his taste discern perverse 
things, and separate the false from the true? The ques- 
tion of Job implies a negative; there was no iniquity in 
his tongue, even as there was none in the tongue of him 
of whom Job is here made to speak as of himself. 

From now an exceptionally clear and specific corre- 
spondence between the words of this chief priest EHphaz 
to Job on his ash heap, and the words of the chief priests 
to Jesus on his cross, turn to the beginning of his har- 
rangue : 

"Behold, thou hast instructed many, and 
thou hast strengthened the weak hands. 

"Thy words have upholden him that was 
falling; and thou hast strengthened the feeble 
knees. 



136 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"But now it is come upon thee, and thou 
faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled. 

"Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy 
hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?" 

He had been a great Teacher of the ignorant, and a 
mighty strengthener of the weak. His words had up- 
holden the falling, and he had strengthened the weak 
hands and the weak knees alike ; in a word, he had been 
a Savior of the lost, and a Redeemer of mankind. But 
now it had come upon him, and himself, he could not 
save ; and was not this, what his fear, his confidence, his 
hope, and the uprightness of his ways had all come to? 
In this way it is that the mocking of Eliphaz at the image 
of Christ in the day of his great and dire distress — all of 
which is a wrought representation of the crucifixion — 
stands for the mocking of the chief priests at Jesus "on 
the day of his death on the cross. "They that passed by 
railed on him," and said to him : 



f Save thyself, and come down from the 



cross." 



"Likewise also the chief priests, mocking, 
said among themselves with the scribes, He 
saved others ; himself he cannot save." 

What further evidence do we need, or what better 
evidence could we wish, that this is the very Christ him- 
self, of whom this scripture in this place testifies under 
the figure of the patriarch "Job," crying out of the deep 
anguish of his soul that God has forsaken him, and that 
he is mocked of mankind. And now that it has been 
shown with sufficient clearness to satisfy any rational 
and unprejudiced mind, who Job is, or whom he repre- 
sents, also past a peradventure who these, so called, 
friends are, or whom they represent, we must perforce 
content ourself with taking a passage here and there 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 137 

from their respective speeches, some for their exceptional 
clearness and ease of interpretation, and others for their 
comparative obscurity and difficulty, remembering" that 
"Even the mistakes of careful and reverent students are 
more valuable now than truth held in unthinking ac- 
quiescence." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Job Answers Eliphaz. (Job. vi.) 

In verses 9 and 10, of this chapter, Job, in the ex- 
tremity of his sorrow is made to wish as follows : 

"Even that it would please God to destroy 
me ; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me 
off! 

"Then should I yet have comfort; yea, 1 
would harden myself in sorrow: let him not 
spare ; for I have not concealed the words of the 
Holy One." 

This is first, the outcry of the human from the an- 
guished heart of the Christ when that long dreaded hour 
was come when he must suffer the fate prepared for him 
from the foundation of the world, and from which he 
shrank with all the sensitiveness of his supersensitive 
human nature — all portrayed in the strong, intense 
speech and manner of the poet and prophet of it all. In 
the second verse he, Job, is made sharply and suddenly 
to reconcile himself, saying, let him not spare ; for I have 
not concealed the words of the Holy One. What mat- 
tered it after all, how soon he was slain by his enemies, 
or in what way ; he had accomplished his mission in the 
world, which was to reveal the words of the Holy One ; 
and now, let him not spare ; he was ready to be offered up. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 139 

The now historic correspondence to these words of 
this old-time prophecy of the Christ to come, and of the 
fate he should suffer, and of the words he should speak 
when his hour should come, is to be found in the seven- 
teenth chapter of the Gospel according to ST. JOHN. In 
that most solemn and affecting part of the entire gospel 
narrative, we read : 

"These words spake Jesus, and lifted up 
his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour 
is come; glorify thy Son, that thy son also may 
glorify thee : 

"I have glorified thee on the earth : I have 
finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 

"I have manifested thy name unto the men 
which thou gavest me out of the world. . . . 

"For I have given unto them the words 
which thou gavest me." 

This is what is signified by these words of his 
prophet : "I have not concealed the words of the Holy 
One." Verses 15 to 18, inclusive, read: 

"My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a 
brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass 
away ; 

"Which are blackish by reason of the ice, 
and wherein the snow is hid: 

"What time they wax warm, they vanish : 
when it is hot, they are consumed out of their 
place. 

"The paths of their way are turned aside; 
they go to nothing, and perish." 

Here the "brethren" of whom Job is made to say 
that they have dealt "deceitfully," are the brethren of 
Christ, or the Jewish people. They had dealt deceit- 



140 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

fully with their leader, Moses, from the beginning, as 
Jesus said to them : 

"Do not think that I will accuse you to 
the Father : there is one that accuseth you, even 
Moses, in whom ye trust. 

"For had ye believed Moses, ye would have 
believed me : for he wrote of me. 

"But if ye believe not his writings, how 
shall ye believe my words." 

They have professed a belief which they never en- 
tertained in their hearts, and as a "stream of brooks" 
they passed away from being a people. The allusion to 
heat, as consuming them "out of their place," is the 
same figure, or the same thought under another figure, as 
in Christ's parable of the Sower, where he says : 

"And some fell on stony ground, where it 
had not much earth ; and immediately it sprang 
up, because it had no depth of earth : 

"But when the sun was up, it was scorched; 
and because it had no root it withered away." 

This part of the whole parable of Job, is that part 
of the whole parable of Jesus, spoken in advance by the 
same Spirit, but under a varied figure of shallow water 
dried up by the heat of summer, while that of Jesus is 
of shallow ground, parched by the same heat. The only 
real difference is that the parable of sowing on stony 
ground, and in shallow soil, is of world-wide, universal 
and eternal application, while this of the shallow brooks 
has also a specific application and historic correspond- 
ence to and in the Jewish nation, and the deceitfulness 
of their dealing, first with their prophet, Moses, and 
finally with their Messiah, the Christ. The following 
two verses are quoted for their obscurity : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 141 

"The troops of Tenia looked, the com- 
panies of Sheba waited for them. 

"They were confounded because they had 
hoped ; they came thither, and were ashamed." 

The critics tell us that the "Troops of Tema," and 
"the companies of Sheba" are two caravans crossing the 
desert, and while "the troops" are looking for water, 
"the companies" are waiting for them to find it; and 
when they fail, they are "ashamed." These fancies, 
which they seek to feed us with in our hunger for some- 
thing substantial, are the best they can set before us in 
the absence of all' knowledge of the purely prophetical 
character of the work they are treating as history, and 
of the Messianic idea and meaning of it all, and its appli- 
cation to both the Jewish and the Christian dispensa- 
tions. 

The word "Tema" here signifies a "desert," it is true, 
but it is a moral and a spiritual desert, and not a literal 
one, while "Sheba" signifies "gold and incense," it is 
true, but it is intellectual gold and poetic incense that is 
meant, and not pocket money nor perfumery. For "The 
troops of Tema" that "looked," are, first of all, the armies 
of the Israelites on their long march through the wil- 
derness, looking for a better country; and then, of that 
vaster army of the whole Jewish people in their wider 
desert of ignorance and delusion, looking for a Messiah 
of their own imagination, as that of a great military and 
political genius and leader to restore the temporal king- 
dom to Israel. 

And now we are better prepared to understand what 
is meant by : 

"They were confounded because they had 
hoped ; they came thither, and were ashamed." 

When they saw Jesus they were confounded, be- 



142 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

cause they had hoped for a very different redeemer; one 
who should redeem them, not from their sins, but from 
their political bondage. They had "trusted that it had 
been he which should have redeemed Israed . . , M 
out of the hands of their enemies ; and that, by power 
and might. And when they beheld their long promised 
and glorious Redeemer — as they had conceived him to 
be, when he should come — in the person of the son of a 
poor carpenter of the wretched and disreputable little 
village of Nazareth, they "were ashamed" of him. "He 
came unto his own, and his own received him not," be- 
cause he had not come in anything like the magnificence 
of state in which they had expected him to appear, but 
in the garb and guise of a poor laborer of a nearby ham- 
let. "They were confounded because they had hoped" 
— for something so very different from that they saw, 
and "were ashamed" of the meek and lowly Jesus. 

For this, by another prophet and another method, is 
a forecast of the rejection of Jesus by the Jews, as fore- 
told by Isaiah, 53 :3 : 

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man 
of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we 
hid as it were our faces from him ; he was de- 
spised, and we esteemed him not." 

Who then, "are the companies of Sheba," which 
"waited" for the "troops of Tema." As the troops of 
Tema are the Israelites to whom the gospel must first 
be proclaimed, the companies of Sheba are the Gentiles, 
who must wait until it is rejected by the Jews before it 
can be offered to them, in the predetermined order of its 
proclamation to the world. Turn now to Isaiah, 60:6, 
where under "The glory of the church in the abundant 
access of the Gentiles," we shall see something more of 
these companies of Sheba', as follows : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 143 

"The multitude of camels shall cover thee, 
the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah ; all they 
from Sheba shall come ; they shall bring gold 
and incense ; and they shall show forth the 
praises of the Lord." 

In this, we find strong confirmation of the truth that 
"the companies of Sheba" are the waiting Gentile na- 
tions of the world. The "gold and incense" which they 
shall bring, being the wealth of their superior knowl- 
edge and wisdom in literature, science, and art, all of 
which shall be consecrated to the showing forth of "the 
praises of the Lord," this last being the incense which 
they shall bring. 

Verses 21, 22, 23, bring the application to the per- 
sonal Christ at his crucifixion : 

"For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting 
down and are afraid. 

"Did I say, Bring unto me? or Give a re- 
ward of your substance? 

"Or, Deliver me from the enemy's hand? or, 
Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?" 

It is, comparatively, a matter of very small moment 
whether the three friends of Job were afraid or not afraid 
when they saw his "casting down." Neither should it 
much concern us to know whether or not he had been of 
a liberal turn of mind, and willing to work for others 
without a reward of their "substance." Or whether he 
called on his friends to help when he fell into the hand 
of the "mighty." As mere personal reminiscences of a 
patriarch of Uz, these things could hardly have worth 
enough for record to be preserved for ages on the page 
of the Word of God. But as phases of Messianic tes- 
timony, aiding in the identification of the real subject of 
the discourse, they become of very great import to the 



144 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

student and searcher of this scripture, aiding him to dis- 
cover how and in what way it all testifies of Him. It is 
of his friends and followers at the time of "casting 
down," as it is called here, that this is written ; they 
saw it and Avere "afraid ;" they became as "nothing" to 
him. "And they all forsook him and fled." — Mark, 14:50. 

Then how clearly and closely descriptive of him 
and of his conduct and course of living in relation to his 
work, and those for whom he worked, is what follows. 
Did he say, "Bring unto me?" or "Give a reward for me 
of your substance?" Or would he have accepted a re- 
ward from anyone for any one of his many and great 
services? Never! And when he fell into the enemy's 
hand, did he call on his friends and say, "Deliver me 
from the enemy's hand?" or "Redeem me from the hand 
of the mighty?" Nothing of the kind did he say or do. 
On the contrary, he did exactly as Job is here repre- 
sented as doing, asking no reward for his service nor for 
help to redeem him from "the hand of the mighty." 

But what gives such great significance to the un- 
selfish Uenevolence, and the noncombatant and nonre- 
sistant disposition and attitude of Job towards his ene- 
mies, is the circumstance that he himself was a man of 
power and might, and abundantly able to withstand 
them, had he been so disposed ; he could have mustered 
a host to deliver him from the hand of the enemy of his 
peace and prosperity when they robbed him of his 
wealth, and murdered his men, instead of which, he rev- 
erently owns it all to be from the hand of God, and asks 
not to be delivered or redeemed from the hand of the 
mighty, but submits to his fate as foreordained of God. 
So did the Christ, of whom he is but a type and figure in 
prophecy. He could have said, "Deliver me from the 
enemy's hand," and it would have been done ; or "Re- 
deem me from the hand of the mighty," and it should 
surely have been accomplished ; for he said : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 145 

"Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to 
my Father, and he shall presently give me more 
than twelve legions of angels? 

"But how then shall the scriptures be ful- 
filled, that thus it must be?" 

In the light of the Messianic idea, and the repre- 
sentative form of the narrative, this is raised out of a 
mere record of the moral status and personal reflections 
of a patriarch of the land of Uz, up to a revelation of the 
predetermined attitude toAvards the temporal powers of 
the world, of the Christ to come ; his to command, he 
should not call on them for aid to deliver him in the time 
of his great extremity; for how then should the scrip- 
tures that had been written of him, be fulfilled? 

In verse 27, Job is made to further complain against 
his friends, as follows : 

"Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye 
dig a pit for your friend." 

This is with reference to the designs of the chief 
priests, scribes and Pharisees to involve Jesus in trouble 
with the government in regard to taxation of the people. 
If they could catch him in some disloyal utterance, and 
report it to the authorities, that would put a quietus 
upon him, which they themselves had failed to do. This 
was the "pit" which they dug for their friend, after tak- 
ing counsel together as to how it could best be done. 

"Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel 
how they might entangle him in his talk." 

Then, having agreed on their plan, they sent some of 
their disciples and government spies to him to ask him 
if it were lawful, or not, to give tribute unto Caesar, 
in the hope to be able to charge him with inciting the 
people to disloyalty to the government, in case he should 
say it was not lawful to do so. But he said: 



146 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"Render unto Caesar the things which are 
Caesar's; and unto God the things that are 
God's." 

So he did not fall into the pit they had dug for their 
friend ; for this is in part what is signified by these words 
of Job. And he, Jesus, was himself "the fatherless," in 
the sense of having no earthly protector of his person in 
his child-like innocence and helplessness from any hu- 
man source. In the 57th Psalm, under the figure of Da- 
vid, the same thing is predicated of the Christ as here 
in Job : 

"They have prepared a net for my steps; 
my soul is bowed down : they have digged a pit 
before me, into the midst whereof they are 
fallen themselves." ... 



CHAPTER XVII. 

This chapter is made up mostly of sad and solemn 
reflections on the shortness and the vanity of man's 
life in this world. He, Job, compares it to a cloud that 
is consumed and vanishes away, and complains of his 
weariness of it all, until at last he exclaims : 

"I loathe it; I would not live alway : let me 
alone ; for my days are vanity." 

This loathing of his life represents the doctrine of 
Christ in regard to every true disciple of his : 

"He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he 
that hateth his life in this world shall keep it 
unto life eternal." 
And again : 

"If any man come to me, and hate not his 
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and 
brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, 
he cannot be my disciple." 

This hatred of course is not intended to have any 
personal application, but signifies hatred of the carnal 
bondage which the ties of consanguinity usually imply. 
So long as a man is in bondage to mere blood relation- 
ship, he cannot achieve anything like that spiritual free- 



148 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

dom which is indispensable to the disciple of Christ. 
And everyone who has experienced aught of that liberty 
wherewith Christ sets men free, hates and loathes his 
life in such a world as this, where he is hindered from 
that larger and more perfect liberty for which he longs, 
and knows he can never enter fully into so long as he 
lives in the "body of this death" which is called life. 
These things of which Job is made so bitterly to com- 
plain, are simply the pangs and pains of the soul that is 
being regenerated in Christ. And these must needs have 
all been experienced by Him in order that he might be 
able to "succor them that are tempted" and tried in like 
manner as he was. This scripture then, testifies of Him, 
and not of Job, who never was, except in a figure of Him. 
But it is the two last verses of this chapter that have 
most puzzled the critics ; in them Job is made to accuse 
himself. 

"I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee O - 
thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me 
as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden 
to myself? 

"And why dost thou not pardon my trans- 
gression, and take away mine iniquity? for now 
shall I sleep in the dust ; and thou shalt seek 
me in the morning, but I shall not be." 

Here this man whom the Lord himself has twice 
pronounced a perfect and an upright man, and one that 
feared God and eschewed evil, and who says that God 
knows he is "not wicked," and that he knows he shall 
"be justified," suddenly proclaims himself to be a sinner, 
and implores the Lord to pardon his transgression, and 
to take away his iniquity. How to reconcile this seem- 
ing discrepancy between these two conflicting phases of 
the character of Job, has been always one of the most 
perplexing problems of the entire book, in the view of 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 149 

the critics, and is one which they have never yet solved, 
either to their own satisfaction or to that of others. This, 
for lack of the Messianic idea of it all for their light and 
guide ; with this, there is no discrepancy nor conflict be- 
tween these two opposite phases of character in the sub- 
ject. 

In a drama of Messianism, like this, with a single 
figure only to represent the character and office of the 
Messiah, first as a sinless Savior of men, and then as tak- 
ing on himself the sins of mankind, and suffering for 
them as though he had himself committed them all, there 
was no way for it but to set this single figure on the 
stage of the drama in the double role of Saint and Sinner 
in one representative person. Had Job been a real per- 
son, instead of the representative character that he is, 
and this only, then there had been a real discrepancy in 
these words of his mouth ; at one time proclaiming him- 
self spotlessly innocent of all wrong-doing, and at an- 
other, as bearing a heavy burden of sin upon his soul, 
and praying that it may be taken away. As it is, there 
is none, save that created by the critics themselves out 
of the false assumption of the historic verity of the work, 
and of the reality of the person of its subject. And there 
is no instance where the need of keeping it always in 
mind that this is not history, but prophecy; not record, 
but representation, is more emphatic than in this. 

Bildad Answers. (Job viii.) 

"Then answered Bildad the Shu-hite, and 
said, 

"How long wilt thou speak these things? 
and how long shall the Words of thy mouth be 
like a strong wind? 



150 . THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the 
Almighty pervert justice? 

"If thou wert pure and upright; surely now 
he would awake for thee, and make the habita- 
tion of thy righteousness prosperous. 

"For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, 
and prepare thyself to the search of their fa- 
thers : 

"For we are but of yesterday, and know 
nothing, because our days upon earth are a 
shadow : 

"Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and 
utter words out of their heart?" 

All of this is Scribism pure and simple ; it exactly 
represents their attitude towards Jesus and his teach- 
ing. He was a pretender and an impostor in their view, 
just as Job is made to be in the sight of Bildad. All the 
words of his mouth were "like a strong wind" to the 
Bildads of his day — to be heard only as such; and how 
long must it be before it could be stopped or stayed, 
was one of the burning questions of the hour with them. 
And when at last he was brought to trial and to judg- 
ment, God did not "pervert judgment," nor did the Al- 
mighty "pervert justice" in permitting him to be tried 
and condemned as he was, they said. And as Bildad is 
made to say to Job in the time of his great extremity : 

"If thou wert pure and upright, surely now 
he would awake for thee, and make the habita- 
tion of thy righteousness prosperous," 

so said the scribes and the elders and chief priests with 
them, of Jesus as he hung on his cross : 

"He trusted in God; let him deliver him 
now, if he will have him : for he said, I am the 
Son of God." 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 151 

The logic of Bildad as to Job, that if he had been 
the servant of God, God surely would awake for him 
now, or answer for him if he called, and deliver him, is 
identically the same as that of the scribes, and , those 
with them, as to Jesus. Had he been the Son of God, 
God would deliver him now, if he would have him do so. 
And the speech of Bildad to Job is simply and only the 
speech of the scribe to Jesus, under substantially the 
same circumstances, the one, being in the somewhat vari- 
ant language of the text, a prophecy of the other; and 
the other, an historic record of the same thing. Then 
the citing of Job to "the former age," and to prepare 
himself "to the search of the fathers" for instruction 
from them, is simply a prophetic rendering of the atti- 
tude of the scribes, and those with them in theory, to- 
wards Jesus and his doctrine. He was a young man, 
"but of yesterday;" what could he know more than the 
"fathers," that he should presume to teach them who had 
Moses and the prophets, and all the fathers for their in- 
struction? Here again we see the reasoning placed in 
the mouth of this figure of Messianic prophecy is ex- 
actly the same as that of the historic character prefig- 
ured; and thus much more of the long hidden mystery, 
of the story of the great debate between Job and his 
three friends, is made plain as to its real character and 
purport. And so it is that at every step of our search 
of this scripture we find fresh confirmation of the truth 
of His saying, that it testifies of Him. 

The remainder of this speech of Bildad is in the pure 
and high poetic style and manner of the author and com- 
poser of all the speeches of all the speakers of the entire 
cast. And while it contains much that is good and true 
in itself, it is all perverted in its application to Job. He 



152 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

is a sufferer because he is a sinner, is the burden of his 
song from beginning to end. Thus it is seen to be Jew- 
ish doctrine throughout, and the same as that which the 
Jews opposed to. Jesus and his doctrine throughout. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Job Replies. (Job ix.) 

In this chapter Job begins by owning that there is 
something of truth in what Zophar has said, but it does 
not solve the problem of "how should a man be just with 
God?" and proceeds to philosophize on the ways of God 
with man : 

"He is wise in heart, and mighty in 
strength; who hath hardened himself against 
him, and hath prospered?" , 

This is a summary of the warnings of Christ against 
hardness of heart to his disciples, and of his rebukes 
to the Jews for the same. Then he proceeds : 

"Which removeth the mountains, and they 
know not : which overturneth them in his an- 
ger." 

This, the critics tell us, is of the literal mountains. 
But what could rock and dirt do to cause God to be 
angry at them enough to overturn them? This would be 
to make of God a senseless being — to expend his anger 
on senseless and unconscious objects, as incapable of of- 
fense against God as they are of feeling his anger. It 
were to reduce the Deity to the level of a mad-man to 
suppose him capable of expending his fury on a pile of 
dirt, however high. 



154 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Here, as in other scriptures, "the mountains" are 
high uplifted powers and prides of the world, which 
when God overturns them in his anger at their unright- 
eousness, have no knowledge that the hand of God is in 
it. All of this is Messianic in its meaning, and is 
prophecy of the result to the world-powers of the com- 
ing: of Christ to overturn them : 



L S 



"Which shaketh the earth out of her place, 
and the pillars thereof tremble." 
This is, in another form, "Heaven and earth shall 

pass away; but my word shall not pass away," as said 
he of whom all this is testimony. 

"Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth 
not; and sealeth up the stars." 

Evidently enough this refers to the coming on of 
some period of great tribulation and darkness: 

"Immediately after the tribulation of those 
days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon 
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall 
from heaven, and the powers of the heavens 
shall be shaken."— Matthew, 24:29. 

"The sun," and "the stars," both in Job and in Mat- 
thew, signify spiritual light and knowledge ; and their 
eclipse, a period of dearth thereof, equally in both books ; 
and the same period is referred to in each of them; the 
former, being a forecast of the record of the latter. In 
this way it testifies of Him. 

"Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not: he 
passeth on also, but I perceive him not." 
So said Jesus: God is a Spirit. And again: . . . 

A spirit hath not flesh and bone as ye see me have. In 
a word, Job is made to teach the doctrine of Jesus, as to 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 155 

the invisibility of God to the outer eye. That which 
is spiritual is seen by the spiritual sight; and that which 
is natural, by the natural sight. 

"For he breaketh me with a tempest, and 
multiplieth my wounds without cause." 

In the prologue, second chapter, third verse, we have 
seen that the Lord said to Satan, of Job, ". . . thou 
movest me against him to destroy him without cause." 
In both these instances the reference is to the sinless 
One, who was made to suffer without cause or provoca- 
tion on his own part. He had done nothing to deserve 
such a fate. 

In the next chapter Job is made to inquire of the 
Lord why it is : 

"That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, 
and searchest after my sin? 

"Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and 
there is none that can deliver out of thine hand." 

Had Job been a real person, and one whom God 
knew as "not wicked," and whom the Lord himself had 
declared to be "a perfect and an upright man, one that 
feareth God, and escheweth evil," it would be a hard 
question to answer, why God should inquire after his 
iniquity, and search out his sin who was perfect in his 
sight. But being, as he is, a figure of the Christ, who 
was made to be our transgressions, and to suffer for our 
sins, and to endure chastisement for our iniquities, his 
image here is made to take them on himself, as though 
himself had committed them all, and to submit to in- 
quest, while yet he is made to be innocent of them all. 
In this way one of the most difficult problems of them 
all is easily solved. It is simply a dramatic representa- 
tion of the assumption of the sins of the world by the 
sinless Christ. Soon he says of his affliction : 



156 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a 
fierce lion : and again thou shewest thyself mar- 
vellous upon me. 

"Thou renewest thy witnesses against, and 
increasest thine indignation upon me ; changes 
and war are against me." 

For a right understanding of this, we must look to 
the history of Christian martyrdom during the first three 
centuries of the era. About the middle of the first cent- 
ury, Nero became emperor of Rome. During the reign 
of that monster of wickedness and cruelty, the afflic- 
tions suffered from the first by the Christians were 
greatly increased. He literally hunted them "as a fierce 
lion." He compelled them to be wrapped in the skins 
of such animals as lions like best to prey upon, and then 
to be thrown into inclosures, and captive lions made 
fierce by starving them, were turned loose upon them 
to tear them to pieces and to devour them. Then again, 
under a milder rule like that of Nerva, they enjoyed 
peace and quiet for a goodly number of years at a time. 
And so came to pass the words of this prophecy, 
". . . and again thou shewest thyself marvellous 
upon me." This was the constantly varying experience 
of Christians during the first three centuries of their ex- 
istence as a body, that as a whole, with occasional excep- 
tions, changes of political administration were against 
them. Then came a great change in the alliance of 
Church and State, and the church itself turned a perse- 
cutor of its own members. This change was against 
Him ; for then, the man Christ's foes were they of his 
own household. And so it was through the long dark 
ages of Christian martyrdom that changes and wars 
were against him, until at last all culminated in the un- 
precedented horrors of the Inquisition. Such is the sim- 
ple significance of these words of the prophet, with 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 157 

which the wise and learned have had so much difficulty, 
all on account of their ignorance of the Messianic idea 
of it all. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
Zophar Answers. (Job xi.) 

"Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, 
and said: 

"Should not the multitude of words be an- 
swered? and should a man full of talk be justi- 
fied? 

"Should thy lies make men hold their 
peace? and when thou mockest shall no man 
make thee ashamed? 

"For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, 
and I am clean in thine eyes. 

"But oh that God would speak, and open 
his lips against thee; 

"And that he would shew thee the secrets 
of wisdom, that they are double to that which 
is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee 
less than thine iniquity deserveth. 

"Canst thou by searching find out God? 
canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfec- 
tion? 

"It is high as heaven ; what canst thou do 
deeper than hell; what canst thou know?" 

All of this speech of Zophar, so far as quoted, so 
exactly represents the attitude and feeling of the Phari- 
sees toward Jesus, his claims and doctrine, that it will 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 159 

be recognized by everyone at a glance, now that atten- 
tion is called to it, as such a representation. To them, 
Jesus was a "man full of talk," and of a "multitude of 
words." And now that the multitude of the people was 
being drawn after him, it was high time that something 
should be said or done to answer him. Should what they 
called his "lies" make them "hold their peace," and he 
be suffered to go on with his blasphemies, 'as they 
deemed his words to be, with none to condemn them, 
nor to make any effort to refute and disprove his argu- 
ment? Moreover, he had mocked their pretensions to 
piety, saying that they devoured widows' houses, and for 
a pretense made long prayer. He had called them hard 
names — such as hypocrites, serpents, a generation of vi- 
pers, who could hardly escape the damnation of hell. 
These charges against them were all "lies" to them. And 
now should no man make him ashamed of these false 
and unjust charges against them, these mockeries of 
them and their most holy religion? He had said also 
that his doctrine was pure, and that he was clean of all 
corrupt motives in saying and doing what he had said 
and done in the hearing and sight of God — just as 
Zophar charges Job with saying, as though he had com- 
mitted blasphemy in saying it. And they wished that 
God would open his lips and speak against him, even as 
Zophar wishes against Job. He had said of himself that 
his wisdom was greater than Solomon's. This also was 
blasphemy in their ears ; and they wished that God 
would shew him that the secrets of wisdom were greater 
than any man could search out. And when he suffered, 
they said that God had exacted less of him than his in- 
iquity deserved. Could he by searching find out God? 
For he had said : "Seek and ye shall find." Could the 
Almighty be found out to perfection? For he had said: 
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is 
in heaven is perfect." To find out the knowledge of 



160 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

God, one must scale the heights of heaven, they thought ; 
and what could he do, this poor, unlettered carpenter. It 
was deeper than hell, they believed ; what could he know 
about it. In short, they utterly scorned the idea that a 
man like him could teach them anything of God, they who 
had Moses and the prophets for their teacher and guides; 
and these words of Zophar to Job, placed in his mouth 
by this prophet of the Messiah and his day, are of him 
and his scorners and deriders in that day. 

The remainder of this speech of Zophar consists of 
a rehash of stale old truisms, or of things well known 
to everybody, but which in their application to Job are 
without point, and are as truths hurled against the Truth- 
All of this is of the manner of the opposers of Jesus, 
who said many things to him which were old and pal- 
pable, but misapplied truths, in their arguments against 
him. 



CHAPTER XX. 
Job Answers Zophar. (Job xii.) 

"And Job answered and said, No doubt but 
ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. 

"But I have understanding as well as you; 
I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth 
not such things as these?" 

This is in the same sarcastic vein in which Jesus 
sometimes answered them when exasperated by the silli- 
ness of their speech. It also shows that Job's remarks 
are addressed to Zophar, less as to an individual than 
as to a representative of a class or body of people, which 
Zophar really is; for just as there was no "Job," save as 
a creation of the master mind of the author of the drama, 
always under divine inspiration and direction, so there 
was no "Zophar" for Job to answer, save as a creation 
of the same mind under the same inspiration. The whole 
of the rest of this chapter is taken up with a series of 
sublime moral reflections on the government of God, as 
the author and disposer of every event, and the arbiter 
of the fate of nations as well as of individuals. All of 
the sentiments attributed to Job in this chapter, find 
their correspondence in the teaching and doctrine of 
Christ, as will be found on a careful study and compari- 
son of the two. There is in it all but one personal al- 
lusion to himself, after that quoted in the third verse. 
It is as follows : 



162 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

"I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who 
calleth upon God, and he answereth him : the 
just upright man is laughed to scorn." 

Turn now to Luke 23 : 

"And the people stood beholding. And the 
rulers also with them derided him, saying, He 
saved others ; let him save himself, if he be 
Christ, the chosen of God. 

"And the soldiers also mocked him, coming 
to him, and offering him vinegar. 

"And saying, If thou be the king of the 
Jews, save thyself." 

Then, "who calleth upon God, and he answereth 
him," is illustrated at the raising of Lazarus. Jesus 
called upon God, and he answered him : 

". . . And Jesus lifted up his eyes and 
said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard 
me. 

"And I know that thou hearest me always : 
but because of the people which stand by I said 
it, that they may believe that thou hast sent 
me." 

Then again, ". . . the just upright man is 
laughed to scorn," has a literal and an exact correspond- 
ence in the record of the raising of the daughter of the 
ruler of the synagogue : 

"And when he was come in, he saith unto 
them, Why make this ado, and weep? The 
damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. 

"And they laughed him to scorn." 

This, however, is but a small incidental suggestion 
of the larger way in which the just upright man Jesus 
was laughed to scorn by the whole body of the Jewish 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 163 

people, and especially by the rulers among them, while 
to the Greeks, his whole doctrine was "foolishness," as 
Paul tells us. In chapter 13, Job begins by saying to 
these pretentious persons that he has seen and heard 
and understood and knows all of these things they have 
been telling him, as well as they, and that he is not in- 
ferior to them in knowledge and wisdom, who are pre- 
suming to teach him concerning the ways of God to 
man, and are making practical falsehoods out of truths 
ill their speech. He then appeals from them to God, as 
always did Jesus : 

"Surely I would speak to the Almighty, 
and I desire to reason with God." 

"But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all phy- 
sicians of no value." 

This was one of the chief distinctions of Jesus, as a 
teacher of truth to men. While they whom these three 
represent, knew nothing of God save that they derived 
from the fathers, he, Jesus, spoke directly to the Al- 
mighty, and reasoned personally with God. They 
taught for the commandments of God, the traditions of 
men, as he truly said of them, while he taught only what 
he heard directly from his Father, God. That was what 
made those famous doctors of divinity forgers of lies 
and physicians of no value. And this was the true phy- 
sician who spoke to the Almighty, and reasoned with 
God. And this is he of whom it is written in Psalm 109 : 

"For the mouth of the wicked and the 
mouth of the deceitful are opened against me : 
they have spoken against me with a lying 
tongue. 

"They compassed me about also with 
words of hatred ; and fought against me with- 
out a cause." 



164 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Forgers of lies, and physicians of no value, is prac- 
tically the same charge which Jesus brought against the 
chief priests, scribes and Pharisees of his time. He had 
said to them, 

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the 
lusts of your father ye will do. He was a mur- 
derer from the beginning, and abode not in the 
truth, because there is no truth in him. When 
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for 
he is a liar, and the father of it." 

And these three men who have compassed him 
about with lying words, and fought against him with- 
out cause, are, in a figure of prophecy, the three classes 
of men who compassed Jesus about with lying words, 
and fought against him without cause, more than any 
others in his day. 

It were a matter of very small moment to us of to- 
day, that anciently a patriarch of the land of Uz, by the 
name of Job, had three professed friends who came 
together to see him when he was in trouble, and that 
instead of comforting him of all the calamities God had 
brought upon him, they fell to accusing him of being a 
hypocrite who had not served God for nought, but for 
gain, and told him that God had exacted of him less than 
his iniquity deserved. And then this man Job retorted 
upon them by charging them with being forgers of lies, 
and physicians of no value to him. As a record of lit- 
eral fact, and a copy of actual speech all around, this 
could be of very little significance to us now. But when 
interpreted and understood as testimony by type and 
figure of Him who was to come as the only begotten 
Son of God, and to suffer such an experience as is here 
shadowed forth under the figure of the deeply afflicted 
and falsely accused "Job," then how great and how 
grand is the significance of it all, even to the smallest 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 165 

particulars of the story. In verses 7, 8, 10, Job reproves 
them as follows : 

"Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk 
deceitfully for him? 

"Will ye accept his person? will ye con- 
tend for God? 

"He will surely reprove you, if ye do se- 
cretly accept persons." 

Person-worship, in lieu of allegiance to laws and 
principles, was precisely what the religion of the Jews 
had declined upon in the day of Jesus. They spoke 
wickedly for God, and talked deceitfully for him. They 
accepted his person, and rejected his principles, and 
were very zealous in their contention for God as a per- 
son, and equally ignorant and neglectful of God as a 
Spirit. Jesus told them that 

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth." 

And this reproof of person-worship, on the part of 
Job, is that of Jesus, as addressed to all who were ad- 
dicted to it, but specifically the Jews. He also said to 
his disciples, when he saw them sorrowing at the pros- 
pect: 

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is ex- 
pedient for you that I go away : for if I go not 
away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; 
but if I depart, I will send him unto you." 

Why did he say that the Spirit of Truth— the Com- 
forter — could have no place in them so long- as he re- 
mained a visible personal presence among them? It was 
because he knew that so long as this condition was kept 
up, they would worship him as a Person ; and this, to a 
corresponding neglect of his principles. This was the 



166 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

reason why it was expedient for them that he should go 
away; the Truth would not come and occupy them in 
anything like its fullness, so long as he remained among 
them in person. And these words of Job, in reproof of 
the worship of persons, is a forecast of this cardinal 
doctrine of the Christ. Next, he says : 

"Shall not his excellency make you afraid? 
and his dread fall upon you?" 

This invocation to the fear of God is found in sev- 
eral of the Gospels. In Luke, 12 :5, we read : 

"But I will forewarn you whom ye shall 
fear : fear him, which after he hath killed hath 
power to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto you, 
Fear him." 

And that it is the Christ, that is meant here, finds 
confirmation in what follows at the close of the chapter : 

"Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? 
and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? 

"For thou writest bitter things against me, 
and makest me to possess the iniquities of my 
youth. 

"Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, 
and lookest narrowly unto all my paths ; thou 
settest a print upon the heels of my feet. 

"And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a 
garment that is moth eaten." 

When a leaf falls off a tree to the ground, it is 
driven to and fro by the wind, and has henceforth no 
abiding place ; the same is true of the dry stubble when 
once it is detached from the soil. In his external life 
and circumstances, Jesus was as a leaf tossed about by 
the Avind. When he went forth in the morning, he knew 
not where he should spend the night; he had no abiding 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 167 

place. It is all told in his own simple words. The 
foxes had holes, he said, and the birds of the air had 
nests ; but the Son of man had not where to lay his 
head. So here, in representation of the external life, 
and outward circumstances of the Christ, they are com- 
pared to a leaf driven to and fro by the wind, and to the 
dry stubble going to and fro, over the ground. As for 
what is meant by, "For thou writest bitter things against 
me," nothing intelligible can be made of it, as applied 
to the patriarch Job, as witness the many futile efforts 
of the critics to extract a worthy meaning from it, from 
their point of view. 

But if we turn now to Matthew 26:31, we shall find 
there the proper clue to the meaning of this seemingly 
mysterious passage. It was close to his crucifixion : 

''Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall 
be offended because of me this night : for it is 
written, I will smite the shepherd, and the 
sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad." 

This he said with reference to what had been' writ- 
ten against him centuries before by the prophet Zech- 
ariah : 

"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, 
and against the man that is my fellow, saith the 
Lord of hosts : smite the shepherd, and the 
sheep shall be scattered : and I will turn my 
hand upon the little ones." 

In short, it is to all of the "bitter things" which 
had been written against him by all of the prophets, con- 
cerning the cruelties and indignities which should be 
heaped upon him, all ending in his crucifixion between 
two malefactors, that these words of the prophet refer 
by his mouth-piece which is called Job ; and now there 
is no longer any mystery as to their meaning or applica- 



168 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

tion, where before, all was dark and mysterious, for 
there is nothing in the book, either before or after this 
passage, to indicate that anything whatever, either "bit- 
ter" or sweet, had ever been written against Job, or for 
him, as indeed therei had not been, for he never had 
any existence prior to his introduction upon the stage 
of the great drama of today, as its chief human charac- 
ter, and that, in a purely and strictly representative 
capacity. 

But Jesus knew all of the things, the "bitter things," 
as the prophet puts it, which had been written concern- 
ing him, and what he should suffer, from Moses, the first 
of the prophets, to Malachi, the last. And he said to 
those who saw him after his resurrection : 

"Ought not Christ to have suffered these 
things, and to enter into his glory? 

"And beginning at Moses and all the 
prophets, he expounded unto them in all the 
scriptures the things concerning himself." 

how it had been written of him that he must be "de- 
spised and rejected of men," abused, beaten, spit upon, 
scourged and crucified. And these are "the bitter 
things" which had been written against him, under the 
figure of Job in the midst of his deep lamentations. This 
is one of the strongest and clearest tests of the purely 
and strictly Messianic idea and character of the entire 
piece of work which is called the Book of Job, and which 
should be sufficient of itself to convince any rational and 
unprejudiced mind of the truth of the same, now that it 
has been clearly set forth. 

Then, as to what is signified by the putting of his 
feet "in the stocks," and looking narrowly unto all his 
paths, and setting "a print" upon the heels of his feet, 
it is simply a series of figures derived from the treatment 
of prisoners in ancient times in order to guard against 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 169 

their escape from prison and from judgment, and that 
they might be tracked and followed in case they should 
escape their guards. It is designed to illustrate the close 
watch and ward which the Angels of God were charged 
to keep over his Christ, lest in some hour of his human 
weakness he should be tempted to escape the terrible 
doom which he knew had been written over against him. 
Of this watch and Avard of the angels, Satan knew; and 
when he had taken him up and set him "on a pinnacle 
of the temple," he said to him, tempting him to cast him- 
self down : 

"If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself , 
down : for it is written, He shall give his angels 
charge concerning thee : and in their hands they 
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash 
thy foot against a stone." 

The same idea governs here in the figure of the 
"stocks," for the feet, the narrow watching of the 
"paths," and the setting of "a print" upon the heels of 
the feet; only here it has another application: Lest 
at any time he should seek to escape the doom that had 
been written against him, he was watched and guarded 
by the angels, being the prisoner of the Most High, 
even as the chief of his apostles, Paul, became a prisoner 
unto him. None of the versions, nor any of the critics, 
have ever contended for it that there is anything literal 
in the meaning of the words of this text: no, they say, 
Job never had his feet in the stocks, nor a print on the 
heels of his feet, like a common criminal. The language 
is figurative ; it represents him as "shut in" to a Neces- 
sity, or as a prisoner of Fate. This reasoning of theirs, 
as to the wording of the text, and as to its meaning as 
well, is quite perfectly correct. But when it comes to 
the application which they make of it to their man, 
"Job," they are quite as thoroughly wrong. It is to him 



170 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

who knew and said that the scriptures testify of him, 
that this refers, and not to Job, save as a constructed 
type and figure of Him. Types and figures do not sit 
with their feet in the stocks, nor do they have prints put 
upon the heels of their feet, that they may be tracked 
in their walk ; neither are all their paths narrowly 
watched and guarded, lest perchance they might step 
outside of them in an unguarded moment — save only, as. 
these, in representation of him over whom all Heaven 
watched while in his human form, as a prisoner of a pre- 
ordained Fate, and shut in to a Divine Necessity. 

Some difficulty may be found by the student here in 
the words, ". . .' and makest me to possess the in- 
iquities of my youth." For though it has been shown 
before this that the assumption of sins and transgres- 
sions on the part of Job is simply in representation of 
Christ's assumption of the sins and transgressions of 
mankind, and suffering for them as though they had 
been his own, in this passage a new feature is introduced 
— the sins of his "youth." This makes it easy for the 
critics, who say that here Job confesses that the cause 
of his present miseries lies back in the sins and iniquities 
of his youth. But in saying this, they seem to have for- 
gotten that they have been told in the prologue of the 
drama that the Lord said to Satan, that he, Satan, had 
moved him, the Lord, to destroy Job "without cause." 
He had, therefore, committed no iniquity of any kind 
or degree to cause the Lord to destroy him, either in his 
youth or afterward ; his sufferings were wholly unpro- 
voked and causeless on his part. This alone, it would 
seem, should have suggested to them that Job was not 
a real person, but a wrought correspondence to the sin- 
less, yet suffering Christ, who had long" before told them 
that the scriptures testify of him. 

What^then is the true significance of these words of 
Job, saying that God had made him to possess the in- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 171 

iquities of his youth? In view of the Messianic idea of 
it all, from beginning to end, what can it mean but that 
he whom Job represents, took on himself the sins and 
iniquities of man from the beginning of the childhood 
and youth of the human race, and from the earliest 
stage of his career as a Savior of the world from its sins, 
assumed them all as his own. This, under the figure of 
Job, is he of whom it is written in Isaiah, ". . -by 
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; 
for he shall bear their iniquities." And for this, he was 
"slain from the foundation of the world," as said of him 
in Revelation. So, and so only, was he made to possess 
the iniquities of his youth — in the highly poetical and 
symbolical language of the text. 

Last of all, in this connection, comes : 

"And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a 
garment that is moth eaten." 

All of the critics agree in thinking that this refers 
to Job himself, calling himself "a rotten thing," and com- 
paring" himself to a moth-eaten garment. But, remem- 
bering that this is prophecy, and Messianic prophecy, 
it can only refer to Anti-Christ, and his decline and the 
decay of his power in proportion as the power of Christ 
grew and increased in the world : 

"Now is the judgment of this world: now 
shall the prince of this world be cast out." 

This said the Christ at his coming. If then the 
prince of this world were cast out at the coming of 
Christ, should not his power henceforth decline, with 
which he had heretofore been clothed, until at last it 
should become "as a garment that is moth eaten," and 
as "a rotten thing," consume away? How otherwise' 
can we make Messianic testimony of this scripture which 



172 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

the critics have belittled down to a comparison of his 
state, by the patriarch of Uz, to something "rotten," 
and to a moth-eaten garment? 

In the next chapter, the 14th, verse 4, Job is made 

to ask : 

"Who can bring a clean thing out of an un- 
clean? not one." 

Here, as throughout, where Job teaches doctrine, 
it is Christ's doctrine. . For this, see Matthew, 7:18: 

"A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, 
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good 
fruit." 

And again in Luke, 6 :45 : 

"A good man out of the good treasure of 
his heart bringeth forth that which is good; 
and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his 
heart bringeth forth that which is -evil ; for of 
the abundance of the heart his mouth speak- 
eth." 

None "can bring a clean thing out of an unclean — 
not one," is the text of all the discourses of Jesus on 
cleanliness of the heart and life of man, and of an un- 
clean heart as the source and fountain of all uncleanness 
of the life. In verses 16 and 17, he goes on to say: 

"For now thou numberest my steps: dost 
thou not watch over my sin? 

"My transgression is sealed up in a bag, 
and thou sewest up mine iniquity." 

Here again, Job is made to take on and apply to 
himself that doctrine of the Christ which he taught : 
that God sees and knows and numbers each and every 
step men take in the world ; that even the hairs of their 
head are all numbered, while for every idle word that a 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 173 

man shall speak, he shall give account at the judgment. 
Nothing-, however small, or however secretly kept, can 
be hidden from God. Only here this doctrine is dram- 
atized and taken on himself by a speaker on the stage of 
the drama as though it were his own, and the sin which 
God watches over, he is made to impute to himself, even 
as on the secular stage speakers impute to themselves 
the sentiments of others, and speak of themselves as 
though they were others than themselves, and nobody 
is deceived or misled thereby. But when it comes to the 
sacred drama, even the wise and learned are deceived, 
and treat it literally, like children at a cheap show. 

"My transgression is sealed up in a bag," is a figure 
from an ancient custom of weighing merchandise, and 
sealing it up in bags with the weight or measure thereof 
stamped on the seal, so that it might be known before 
the bags were opened. The idea here is that God knows 
the contents of every one's life, as though he had sealed 
them all up in a bag and reserved it to be opened and 
displayed to view at the final judgment, having himself 
weighed and measured and sealed them up to that end. 
But in its Messianic meaning and application, the pass- 
age is in anticipation of the teaching of Christ, saying, 

"For judgment I am come into this world." 

And again : 

"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath 
committed all judgment unto the Son." 

In Deuteronomy, 32 :34, there is a passage of the 
same general import as this, as to the sealing up of in- 
iquities, and storing them up against the time of judg- 
ment. There, after naming the sins by which his people 
have, moved him to jealousy, and provoked him to anger, 
God says : 



174 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

"Is not this laid up in store with me, and 
sealed up among my treasures?" 

But here in Job, he is made to speak of them as "my 
transgressions," and "mine iniquity," in representation 
of him who was "wounded for our transgressions," and 
"bruised for our iniquities," taking them all upon him- 
self. 



CHAPTER XXL 
Eliphaz Replies. 



"Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, 
and said, — verses 5 and 6 — 

"For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and 
thou choosest the tongue of the crafty. 

"Thine own mouth condemneth thee, arid 
not I : yea, thine own lips testify against thee." 

Here Eliphaz, who specifically represents the 
priestly class in their hatred of Christ, is made to speak 
in almost identically their own words at the trial scene 
before Pilate. The high priest had adjured him by the 
living God to tell them if he were the Christ, the Son 
of God : 

"Jesus saith unto him,, Thou hast said : 
nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye 
see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of 
power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." 

"Then the high priest rent his clothes, say- 
ing, He hath spoken blasphemy ; what further 
need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye 
have heard his blasphemy." 

In the words of Eliphaz, his own mouth condemned 
him, and not "I ;" his own lips had testified against him. 
And he had chosen "the tongue of the crafty," as they 



17G THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

judged, in saying — "Thou hast said;" and "Ye say that 
I am," in answering their questions, if he were the 
Christ. In Luke's account of the same, we read : 

"And they said, What need we any further 
witness ? for we ourselves have heard of his own 
mouth." 

And now what need we of any further witness to 
the truth that this all is testimony of him who said it 
was so? But if more is needed, the next spoken words 
of Eliphaz to Job, and their correspondence in the words 
spoken by the Jews to Jesus under corresponding cir- 
cumstances, will furnish it. He next says : 

"Art thou the first man that was born? or 
wast thou made before the hills? 

"Hast thou heard the secret of God? and 
dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? 

"What knowest thou, that we know not? 
what understandest thou, which is not in us? 

"With us are both the gray-headed and 
very aged men, much elder than thy father. 

"Are the consolations of God small with 
thee? is there any secret thing with thee?" 

All of this so exactly represents the attitude of the 
wise and learned of the Jews towards the Christ when 
he had come among them with what were to them, his 
preposterous claims, and especially of the priestly class, 
that it will be recognized at a glance by those at all 
familiar with the subject, as a close representation of 
the same, hoav that their attention has been called to it. 
He said to them : 

"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my 
day : and he saw it, and was glad. 

"Then said the Jews unto him. Thou art 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 177 

not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abra- 
ham?" 

This is the now historic correspondence to the sar- 
castic questions of EHphaz on the page of Messianic 
prophecy, as put to Job — Art thou the first man that was 
born? or wast thou made before the hills? Had this 
young and unlettered man heard the secret of God? and 
did he restrain wisdom to himself, that he should pre- 
sume to teach them anything about God, they who had 
Abraham to be their father, and Moses and all the proph- 
ets for their light and guide? What did he know that they 
knew not? And what did he understand, which was not 
already in them? They had among them gray-headed 
men, much older than his father, to whom they could 
look for instruction if they needed it. "Is there any se- 
cret thing with thee," as insinuated by Eliphaz against 
Job, finds its correspondence in the fact that the rulers 
among the Jews strongly suspected Jesus of secretly 
cherishing a purpose to put himself at the head of tem- 
poral affairs, and to make himself a king, or of some 
deep laid design, which if he were permitted to carry it 
out, would ultimate in their destruction as a people; 
for they said among themselves : 

"If we let him thus alone, all men will be- 
lieve on him : and the Roman shall come and 
take away both our place and nation." 

Continuing, Eliphaz says : 

"Why doth thine heart carry thee away? 
and what do thy eyes wink at, 

"That thou turnest thy spirit against God, 
and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?" 

It was precisely such questions as': these, concern- 
ing Jesus, that most perplexed the leaders among the 
Jews, in his day. What was he scheming for? and for 
what was his heart carried so far away from their stand- 



178 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

ards of ethics and religion, unto whom had been "com- 
mitted the oracles of God?" Was he seeking to over- 
throw their ancient and heaven-revealed system, or was 
it a political scheme of the Romans to take away their 
place and nation, that he was winking at, and under- 
handedly working to aid? In any event, he was a very 
dangerous person with his wonderfully persuasive 
speech and with all his marvellous powers ; and how to 
fathom his purpose and to defeat him, were those burn- 
ing questions to solve which, they held solemn and fre- 
quent councils together, and which are here in the criti- 
cal and caustic questioning of Job by Eliphaz, made a 
fitting subject of Messianic prophecy, as setting forth 
in detail how his own should not receive him as their 
Messiah, but should fear and suspect, as well as hate 
and despise him when he should come. 

The remainder of this speech of Eliphaz is given 
up to speculations of Jewish philosophy on the dealings 
of divine Providence with wicked men, of whom Job is 
chief, by the implications of his story. To all this, Job 
replies in chapter 16, saying to begin with : 

"I have heard many such things : miser- 
able comforters are ye all." 

And further, in the most Christ-like spirit, that if 
he were in their place, and they in his, he would not 
"heap up words" against them, nor shake his head at 
them : 

"But I would strengthen you with my 
mouth, and the moving- of my lips should as- 
suage your grief." 

Here speaks the true spirit of Christ, the Com- 
forter, who strengthens the weak by the words of his 
mouth, and by the moving of his lips assuages their 
grief; and this, in plain direct words without other sym- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 179 

bol than that of his mouth-piece, which is Job. In verses 
seven to eleven, inclusive, he continues : 

"But now he hath made me weary : thou 
hast made desolate all my company." 

Here "all my company" signifies the little church 
which was filled with sorrow and desolation at his cruel 
and ignominious death on the cross. It has also a larger 
historic application to the larger church in after cent- 
uries when fire and sword carried desolation through 
all its borders. Then all his company was made deso- 
late indeed : 

"And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, 
which is a witness against me : and my leanness 
rising up in me beareth witness to my face." 

This is an earlier rendering of the same prophecy 
by Isaiah concerning the person of the Messiah : 

"As many were astonied at thee; his 
visage was so marred more than any man, and 
his form more than the sons of men :" 

9. "He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth 
me : he gnasheth upon me with his teeth ; mine 
enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me." 

The allusion here is historical, and is to the time of 
the coming down of "the devil," and "having great wrath, 
because he knoweth that he hath but a short time," as 
said in Revelation, 12:12; and which time was at the ad- 
vent of Christ. He that "teareth me in his wrath," as 
says Job, is Satan, "who hateth me," or the spirit of 
Anti-Christ, which hates Christ. Gnashing upon him 
with his teeth, is a figure drawn from the g'ritting or 
grinding of the teeth of enraged beasts or men, and sig- 
nifies the intensity of the hatred, and the fierceness of the 
wrath of Anti-Christ. The sharpening of the eyes of his 



180 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"enemy" upon him, is prophetic of the closeness of the 
watch that was kept upon the primitive church of Christ 
by all of its enemies and opposers; and indeed, upon the 
Christ himself by the jealous and intriguing Jews, who 
closely watched and sought every opportunity to "en- 
tangle him in his talk," and to make it appear that it was 
by Beelzebub, the prince of devils, that he cast out evil 
spirits from the obsessed. Then, afterwards, by the 
sending of spies into Protestant congregations to listen 
carefully to what was said there, and to report to the 
heads of the now apostate church everything of a dis- 
sentient character said or done there, there was a further 
fulfillment of this prophecy — ". . . mine enemy 
sharpeneth his eyes upon me." 

10. "They have gaped upon me with their 
mouth ; they have smitten me upon the cheek 
reproachfully ; they have gathered themselves 
together against me." 

This is so clear a description of the scene of the 
crucifixion of Christ, when once the Messianic idea and 
meaning of it all has been grasped and apprehended, that 
we know precisely where to look for its historic corre- 
spondence on the page of Christian records. It is in all 
the gospels ; and this prophecy is, when understood, it- 
self confirmatory evidence of the essential and of the 
exact truth of the several records of the same things. 
Take this from the 22nd chapter of the gospel according 
to St. Luke : 

"And the men that held Jesus mocked him, 
and smote him. 

"And when they had blindfolded him, they 
struck him on the face, and asked him, saying, 
Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? 

"And many other things blasphemously 
spake they against him." 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 181 

' Even so, they gaped upon him with their mouth; 
even so, they smote him upon the cheek reproachfully; 
and even so, they gathered themselves together against 
him, even as it is written here of his prototype which is 
called Job, that they had done all of these things unto 
him. In verse 11, Job says: 

"God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and 
turned me over into the hands of the wicked." 

In view of what has gone before, this hardly requires 
any comment whatever; it is simply the falling of the 
Christ into the hands of his enemies at last, as it was pre- 
determined by the will of God that he should. Accord- 
ingly, Job is made to say that God had delivered him to 
the ungodly, and turned him over into the hands of the 
wicked. And it is this, his constant recognition of the 
hand of God in everything, good or evil, that befalls him 
from the beginning to the end of his career, that makes 
him so perfect an image of him who always did this from 
the first to the last of his life in the world. In verse 13, 
he says : 

"His archers compass me round about, he 
cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare ; 
he poureth out my gall upon the ground." 

Here the critics have rightly conjectured that the 
word, "archers" does not necessarily imply any literal 
shooting with arrows, but signifies enemies, whether 
armed or unarmed with actual weapons of any kind, en- 
compassing the subject about. And what is wonderful, 
while they have correctly defined the meaning of the fig- 
ure, and traced it to its origin and derivation, they are 
without a suspicion as to its application, which is to 
Christ. "His archers compass me round about," signi- 
fies those whom God gave to encompass him i as hunts- 
men invest their victims to drive them to their death. 



182 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

They surrounded him on every side, and pierced his soul 
with wicked and cruel words, which were like poisoned 
arrows. In chapter 6, verse 4, Job has said : "For the 
arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison 
whereof drinketh up my spirit." Then, ". . .he 
cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare ; he pour- 
eth out my gall upon the ground," while it has a large 
spiritual meaning, and an equally large historic applica- 
tion to his persecuted and afflicted people in the times of 
the great tribulation of the church, it is at the same time, 
specific in its application to the Christ in his own person. 
For this, see John 19 :34 : , 

"But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced 
his side, and forthwith came there out blood 
and water." 

The piercing of the hands and feet of Jesus, is a well- 
known subject of prophecy. It is foretold in Psalms, 
and in Zechariah ; also the circumstance that while the 
soldiers broke the legs of the two malefactors between 
whom he was crucified, when they came to Jesus, "they 
brake not his legs," is noted in Psalms, saying, Not a 
bone of him shall be broken. It is to be noted here that 
only one of the Evangelists makes any record of this cir- 
cumstance. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, make no mention 
of it. John alone supplies their omission. So, one only 
of the prophets makes mention of the piercing of his side. 
It is the author of Job, here where he says, .". . . he 
cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare ; he poureth 
out my gall upon the ground." The spiritual meaning 
of this, together with the large historic application to the 
crucified Church, will be expounded and treated when we 
come to another clause in the 19th chapter, containing 
another and a final reference to the "reins" of the sub- 
ject. In verses 18 and 19 of the chapter now before us, 
we read : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 183 

"O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let 
my cry have no place." 

"Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, 
and my record is on high." 

This shows on the face of it that something and 
somebody of great significance and importance are in- 
tended : so much so that it is simply inconceivable how it 
could possibly apply to the patriarch Job, even had he 
been a real person. The appeal is to the whole earth to 
cover not the blood of the appellant. And it is by one 
whose record is "on high," and whose witness is in 
heaven. It evidently enough is of some very, and su- 
pernaturally, great One alone, that this is written, the 
covering of whose blood would be a world's disaster : It 
can be only of him whose blood was shed for the remis- 
sion of the sins of many people that this is written, the 
knowledge of which tremendous sacrifice is necessary to 
the salvation of the world; for the covering' of the blood 
of the subject* of this prophecy, signifies the concealing 
of the sacrifice from the world, and the consequent defeat 
of its great purpose. This, Jesus prayed against ; for 
then, his blood should have been shed in vain, and for 
nought. And this is his prayer. Let not the knowledge 
of his salvation be covered or concealed in the earth, nor 
lost in the earth, but let it spread to "earth's remotest 
bound." Neither let his cry have no place ; but "Waft, 
waft ye winds his story; And you, ye waters roll; Till 
like a sea of glory, It spreads from pole to pole." That 
it is of him, and him only, that this is written, is con- 
firmed by what immediately follows : 

"Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, 
and my record is on high." 

For the full and precise meaning of this, we have 
only to turn to the record of his own sayings on this sub- 



184 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

ject of witness bearing from, heaven concerning himself. 
In John 5th we read : 

"Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness 
unto the truth." 

". . . But I have greater witness than 
that of John : for the works which the Father 
hath given me to finish, the same works that I 
do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent 
me. 

And the Father himself, which hath sent 
me, hath borne witness of me." 

Here the reference is to Matthew, 3:17, where the 
record is that at the baptism of Jesus, John "saw the 
Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon 
him." 

"And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
This is what is meant by these words of Job : 

"Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, 
and my record is on high." 

"And this is the record, that God hath given 
to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." — 
John, first epistle, 5:11. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Job Appealeth From Men to God. (Job xvii.) 

Verse 1. "My breath is corrupt, my days 
are extinct, the graves are ready for me." 

Since these words were never actually spoken by the 
patriarch, but are put in his mouth by the author, it fol- 
lows that they represent something; and what that is, can. 
only be determined by reference to him of whom all this 
is testimony in one way and another. And when it is 
known that Job represents not only the personal Christ, 
but his body the church, with which he identifies himself 
as though it were his own person, then, what appears 
impracticable of application to Christ in person, may be- 
come easy of solution when applied to the church as the 
body of Christ. And here, the word "breath," signifies 
Spirit. And here, the prophet, in the person of Job, 
speaks of the corruption of the church, it no longer hav- 
ing the spirit of Christ, but is itself turned a persecutor 
of him, in his people, protesting against its manifold 
crimes and corruptions. And to him, the days of the pro- 
testing church are visibly "extinct." It is to be tem- 
porarily destroyed, and to be for a time as it were dead ; 
and the graves of its murdered people were ready for it, 
prophetically speaking. And that such was its fate, his- 
tory now attests in confirmation of the prophecy. 



18G THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Verse 2. "Are there not mockers with me? 
and doth not mine eye continue in their provoca- 
tion? 

These "mockers" who are "with" Job in the prophetic 
drama, are .so only in representation of those mockers 
who were with Jesus from the beginning of his public 
ministry. And did not his "eye continue in their provoca- 
tion" on to the end thereof, foreseeing and foretelling, as 
he did, that they should be with him to the end? And 
when this was come, it is written of the soldiers who were 
present, that "they bowed the knee before him, and 
mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews !" 

"Likewise also the chief priests mocking 
him, with the scribes and elders, said, 

"He saved others ; himself he cannot save." 

In this way they mocked him — deriding his claim 
that he had come to save the world, while yet he had not 
the power to save himself, they said. But his eye "con- 
tinued" in their "provocation," within the meaning of 
these words of the text, far beyond this,- foreseeing the 
mockings, the scourgings, the trials and tribulations 
which his followers must suffer and endure from his mock- 
ers in after times, saying, "If they have called the master 
of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call 
them of his household?" Even so far as the time of the 
great tribulation to come, did his eye continue in the 
provocation of the mockers of him in his people. 

Verse 3. "Lay down now, put me in a 
surety with thee ; who is he that will strike 
hands with me?" 

Here the figure is from the ancient custom of striking 
hands, or clasping hands, in token of a solemn pledge or 
covenant, or of putting down something of value for a 
surety that the pledge will be performed, or the covenant 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 187 

carried out. In its intent, it is of him who was made 
"the mediator of a better covenant, which was estab- 
lished upon better promises." And here, Job, speaking 
to his three friends, who are the Jews, in a figure of Mes- 
sianic prophecy, is Jesus asking them who there was 
among them who would "strike hands" with him, and 
come under the provisions of that new covenant of which 
he was the mediator. It is a question which carries and 
contains its own negation with and in itself; they would 
not come. This is implied in the next following verse : 

Verse 4. "For thou hast hid their heart from 
understanding : therefore shalt thou not exalt 
them." 

We cannot make Messianic testimony of this by 
supposing that it is meant to apply to a certain three 
men, called friends of Job, as all the critics have ac- 
cepted it ; this is to belittle the Word of God beyond 
measure. It is of a nation of people that this is writ- 
ten, the same of whom the Lord said to another prophet 
of the same things : 

". . . Go and tell this people, Hear ye 
indeed, but understand not; and ye see in- 
deed, but perceive not." — Isa., 6 :9. 

And when he was come, of whom this is written, 
both in Isaiah and in Job, they heard indeed, but under- 
stood not his words ; they saw indeed the works he did, 
but perceived not that they were of God ; and they were 
not exalted, for God had "hid their heart from under- 
standing ;" therefore should he "not exalt them," as says 
the speaking figure of Christ, which is called Job. 

Verse 6. "He hath made me also a byword 
of the people ; and aforetime I was as a tabret." 

What is signified by the subject having been made 



188 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

by the Lord a byword of the people, is explained by ref- 
erence to the account of the taunting phrases flung at 
him by the people, at the crucifixion of Christ. They 
caught at the word King; first, robing him in mock imi- 
tation of a king, and placing an imitation of a crown 
made of thorns around his head, "and began to salute 
him, Hail, King of the Jews !" They made a byword 
of the word "king," and taunted him with it, and doubt- 
less used it among themselves to express their contempt 
of him and his claims as sarcastically as possible. He 
also was the man, they said, "that destroyest the temple, 
and buildest it in three days." And in their mockeries, 
no doubt they made use of many words referring to 
things he had said, in a way to make bywords of them, 
of which there is no record. "Aforetime I was as a 
tabret," should be rendered : Before them I was as a 
tabret. A tabret was an instrument like a small drum 
to be beaten upon to make a rude kind of music. He 
was beaten like a tabret by them for their music and 
their mirth. And this is what is meant by the prophet's 
words, ". . . and aforetime I was as a tabret." In 
the Lamentations of Jeremiah, which are of the same 
signification as these of Job, we find a verse of a similar 
meaning to this : 

"Behold their sitting down, and their ris- 
ing up ; I am their music." 

He, too, says the same thing, as to its significance, 
as ". . . and aforetime I was as a tabret." Or, I 
was as an instrument to be beaten upon to make mirth 
and pleasant music for the wicked. 

Verse 10. "But as for you all, do ye re- 
turn, and come now : for I cannot find one wise 
man among you." 

In chapter 6, verse 29, we found something so like 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 189 

this, an exhortation to return, and which was not com- 
mented upon at the time, that we now bring them to- 
gether and comment upon them unitedly here as though 
they were one. That verse reads : 

"Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity ; 
yea, return again, my righteousness is in it." 

The Messianic meaning of this is in Christ's call to 
the unconverted, and to the back-sliding, to return 
again. "Let it not be iniquity," finds its clear historic 
correspondence in his reasoning appeal to the Pharisees 
when they accused him of casting out devils, ". 
but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." And he rea- 
soned with them, saying: 

"Every kingdom divided against itself is 
brought to desolation ; and every city or house 
divided against itself shall not stand. 

"And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided 
against himself; how then shall his kingdom 
stand? 

"But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of 
God, then the kingdom of God is come unto 
you." 

By such unanswerable logic as this, he appealed to 
them to "let it not be iniquity" in their sight — the work 
which he did — for says he of it here, by the word of his 
prophet, "my righteousness is in it." In the next verse 
he inquires, 

"Is there iniquity in my' tongue? cannot 

.my taste discern perverse things?" 

So said Jesus at his trial before Pilate : "If I have 
spoken evil, bear witness of the evil . . ." Had 
there been any iniquity in his tongue, let them show 
wherein it consisted. Could not he choose betwixt good 



190 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

and evil in his speech? Or, as says his prophet here, 
". . . cannot my taste discern perverse things?" 
To return now to, 

"But as for you all, do ye return, and come 
now : for I cannot rind one wise man among 
you." 

This invitation is to a vastly greater company than 
three men arguing unwisely against one. It is, in this 
representative form, Christ's call to both the Jews and 
the Gentiles to return and come now unto him ; to the 
Jews, to return from their back-sliding'; and to the Gen- 
tiles, to return from their wandering away from the 
Right, in their worship of strange gods, which are no 
gods, and come to him and learn of him who is "the 
way, the truth, and the life." As to what is meant by 
". . . for I cannot find one wise man among you," 
which should seem strange, as spoken of so great a mul- 
titude of men, and including so many centuries of time, 
it is better told in the words of Paul, speaking of the 
prerogative of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles, 
than in any other way : 

"What then? are we better than they? No, 
in no wise : for we have before proved both 
Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin ; 

"And it is written, There is none right- 
eous, no not one ; 

"There is none that understandeth, there 
is none that seeketh after God." 

In further pursuance of the same subject, the 
apostle says in chapter 2, verse .32 : 

"For God hath concluded them all in unbe- 
lief, that he might have mercy upon all." 

The meaning is the same here, where the Spirit 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 191 

says by the prophet, ". . . For I cannot find one 
wise man among you." God has included them all in 
unwisdom, that they may all "return and come now" to 
him who is the Wisdom of God, that through him he 
might have mercy upon all. 

Verse 12. "They change the night into 
day : the light is short because of darkness. 

The critics call this verse "obscure." It is so only 
for lack of the all-illuminating. Messianic, idea of the 
book, both as a whole, and as to all of its particulars. 
This penetrates into its darkest recesses and fills them 
with its own light, without which, it is all dark. One 
critic, versed in the Hebrew, translates the first clause 
to make it read : "They change the day into night." 
AVhile this does no harm, it also does no good; for it 
sheds no light on the question, Who are "They" who 
change the night into day, or the day into night? 
Neither does it furnish any explanation of what is meant 
by this process of inversion of the natural order of 
things, as they, the critics, think it describes. It is not 
an inversion of the natural, but of the spiritual order, 
that the prophet here speaks of, using the natural only 
as a figure of the spiritual. For whom this is intended, 
who are here spoken of as "they," see Isaiah, 5 :20. Also 
the same for what is meant here by changing the night 
into day, or the day into night, it is immaterial which 
form of words is used, and read : 

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and 
good, evil; that put darkness for light, and light 
for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and 
sweet for bitter !" 

These are they who change the night into day, and 
the day into night, putting darkness for light, and light 
for darkness. The figure may have been taken from 



192 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

certain members of the animal kingdom, such as bats 
and owls, which make the night their day, and the day 
their night when they sleep ; or from those beasts of the 
forest of which the psalmist writes : 

"Thou makest darkness, and it is night : 
wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep 
forth. 

". . . The sun ariseth, they gather 
themselves together, and lay them down in 
their dens." 

These change the day and the night into each 
other. When he came who was "., . . the bright 
and morning star" of the world's great new day, then 
•they of whom these inversions of the spiritual order of 
things are predicated, by their false and inverted con- 
struction of his teaching, changed the day into night, 
which is the same in effect as changing the night into 
day. And it is of these, that this is written. 

Verse 14. "I have said to corruption, 
Thou art my father : to the worm, Thou art 
my mother, and my sister." 

This is the prophet's way of speaking of the incar- 
nation of the Word in the flesh, taking on temporarily 
its corruptible form, as says John : "And the Word 
was made flesh, and dwelt among us . . ." And 
Paul, speaking of this, 

"For what the law could not do, in that it 
was weak through the flesh, God sending his 
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for 
sin, condemned sin in the flesh." 

Then in Psalm 22 :6 : 

"But I am a worm, and no man; a re- 
proach of men, and despised of the people." 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 193 

That it is the Christ who here .calls himself "a 
worm," is clearly shown in what follows in verses 16 
and 18, of the same chapter, he being its subject 
throughout : 

"For clogs have compassed me : the assem- 
bly of the wicked have inclosed me : they 
pierced my hands and my feet. 

"They part my garments among them, and 
cast lots upon my vesture." 

As here in Psalms, David speaks of Christ as 
though speaking of himself, as "a worm and no man," 
so in Job the writer makes his Job speak of Christ as 
though he spoke of himself, saying to corruption, "Thou 
art my father ;" and to the worm, "Thou art my mother, 
and my sister." In both instances the figure is of the 
humiliation of the Son of God in assuming the likeness 
of corruptible man. The only difference is that the two 
prophets employ .substantially the same figure for 
identically the same purpose, in somewhat varying 
phrase. 

Verse 15. "And where is now my hope? 
as for my hope, who shall see it? 

It has been said before this, that the book, Job, is 
in some of its phases a revelation of the inner life and 
experiences of Jesus, the Christ, such as has not been 
given to us in any other scripture. It shows us that in 
his human nature he was subject to all the infirmities, 
all the fears, all the despairs of our common humanity, 
all the dark eclipses of our hope which are common to 
us all, until at length he overcame them all, and so be- 
came our great Exemplar in the overcoming of evil, 
the evil in our own nature. 



194 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"For verily he took not on him the nature 
of angels ; but he took on him the seed of Abra- 
ham.'' 

And it is in this taking" on him the seed of Abra- 
ham, a mortal man, that we find the sense and meaning 
of "I have said to corruption, Thou art my father : to 
the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister." And 
here, "And where is now my hope?" Job represents the 
alternating hopes and despairs of the regenerating man, 
who is at one time high in his hope of deliverance from 
his sufferings, and at another, low in the depths of 
despond. Also if it behooved the Christ ". . . to 
be made in all things like unto his brethren," as says 
St. Paul, it then behooved him that he should suffer 
the pangs of regeneration with all its mingled and al- 
ternating hopes and fears, like unto theirs. And these 
things are a forecasting of them all, with their seeming 
inconsistencies and discrepancies, as applied to Him. 
At one time the souls who are passing through the pur- 
gatory of regeneration are at the high tide of hope of a 
blessed immortality ; then, they are at its lowest ebb, 
and are tempted to think, 

"They shall go down to the bars of the pit, 
where our rest together is in the dust," 

as says Job in the last verse of this chapter. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
Bildad Answers Job. (Job xviii.) 

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and 
said : 

How long will it be ere ye make an end of 
words? mark, and afterwards we will speak. 

Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and 
reputed vile in your sight? 

He teareth himself in his anger : shall the 
earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock 
be removed out of his place? 

On the single word "End," in the first verse quoted 
above, the critics have expended much learning, and all 
to no purpose but to display their learning. Gesenius 
says that it is all right just as it reads ; "end" is the 
right word according to him. Then comes Fuerst and 
says that it is "noose, " which would make the passage 
read: "How long will ye make a noose of words?" 
Conant, with many other critics, makes it: "How long 
will ye hunt for words?" Then there is endless quib- 
bling over the question whether it would not be better 
to change the word "long," into "when," and leave ofl 
the word "How." Mr. Good beats them all for in- 
genuity by translating it : "How long will ye plant 
thorns among words?" Thus these "blind guides — 



196 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel" — sticking at a 
word to find a figurative meaning for it, and swallowing 
the whole figure for a literal fact, without an effort at 
mastication. 

The translation just as it stands is sufficiently ac- 
curate for all practical purposes of interpretation ; in- 
deed it is closer to the real intent of the whole clause 
than are any of the numerous variations of the other 
translators ; for it refers only dramatically to Job of 
Uz and his opposers in argument, while prophetically it 
is of Jesus of Nazareth, and his enemies, the Jews, that 
this is written. And Bildad's question to Job, "How 
long will it be ere ye make an end of words?" is simply 
the way of the prophet and poet in propounding in ad- 
vance that burning question of the ruling classes of the 
Jews : How long must it be before we shall be able to 
put an end to the preaching and teaching of Jesus and 
his party? Or, How long must it all be endured? For 
they said that if he and they were allowed to go on in 
the way they were going, the whole world would ere 
long follow after them, and the Romans would take 
away their place and name among the nations. There 
must be an end put, either to him and the preaching of 
his gospel, or to them as a people ; they therefore made 
concerted and vigorous effort to answer him and over- 
throw him in argument. This is the secret and the 
animus of Bildad's words — "mark, and afterwards we 
will speak." 

Verse 3. "Wherefore are we counted as 
beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?" 

This refers directly to the epithets which Jesus 
heaped upon the scribes and Pharisees and their fellow 
hypocrites in his day, calling them many hard names, 
not one of which was a misnomer — such as thieyes, 
robbers, liars, serpents who could hardly escape "the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 197 

damnation of hell," "whited sepulchres," children of 
their father, the devil, compassers of sea and land to 
make a convert, only to make him twofold more a child 
of hell than themselves, thus counting them as beasts, 
and reputing them as vile in his sight — in the words 
imputed to this one of their representatives, and which 
need no further comment. 

Verse 4. "He teareth himself in his anger : 
shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall 
the rock be removed out of his place." 

In chapter 14, verse 18, Job himself says : 

"And surely the mountain falling cometh to 
nought, and the rock is removed out of his 
place." 

On account of the close likeness of the last clause 
to this of Bildad's, and of the exact identity of the fig- 
ures of both speakers, this has been reserved for com- 
ment along with this now before us. Throughout the 
symbolical parts of the scriptures, the word mountain 
or mountains signifies a sovereign power or powers of 
either good or evil ; sometimes the former is meant, and 
sometimes the latter. Babylon was. an instance of the 
latter kind, and in Jeremiah, 21 :25, that great sovereign 
power is called a "destroying mountain." And surely 
that mountain, falling, came to nought, and her rock 
was removed out of its place. In scripture symbology a 
"rock" is a foundation to be builded upon. Jesus called 
the recognition of his Messiahship a rock when he said 
to Peter, who had recognized in him the Messiah, 
" . . . and upon this rock I will build my church ; 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." It is 
of such mountains as these, and of such rocks, that Job 
is speaking when he says, "And surely the mountain 
falling cometh to nought and the rock is removed out of 



198 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

his place." Only here in the orotund language of his 
prophet, he is speaking for him who said in simpler 
phrase: 

"For whosoever exalteth himself shall be 
abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be 
exalted." 

And this, whether it is a person who exalts himself 
as a hill, or a people that exalts itself as a mountain ; 
for he said : 

"And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted 
to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell." 

We may now be better prepared to understand the 
precise meaning of these words of Bildad to Job, and 
to make correctly their intended application — ". 
shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shallthe rock 
be removed out of his place?" Wheff Jesus came, preach- 
ing the gospel of the kingdom at hand, yet saying that 
his kingdom was not of this world, this was by far too 
idealistic and remote a doctrine for the gross realism of 
Jewish officialdom to accept or understand. What they 
wanted was the earth, and its dominion — a kingdom 
that was of this world, not of heaven. And now, should 
they throw away their earthly hopes, desires and ambi- 
tions to follow after heavenly things as proposed by this 
impracticable dreamer with nowhere to lay his head, 
and who had to ask for a penny to use to illustrate his 
remarks on the subject of paying tribute to Caesar? 
Should they forsake the solid earth, with all its sub- 
stantial enjoyments and solid comforts, for a thin, 
ethereal heaven, such as he offered them — they of the 
earth earthy, who knew nothing of and cared nothing 
for things heavenly? Not they. 

Had not they Abraham to their father, Moses for 
their law-giver, and all the prophets for their guide? 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 199 

And should the rock of their ancient and firmly estab- 
lished faith be removed out of its place to make room 
for a new and strange doctrine, one that tended to de- 
stroy the very foundations of their civil and religious 
unity and life? These, and these only, are the things 
intended in Bildad's scornful queries as addressed to 
Job: ". . . shall the earth be forsaken for thee? 
and shall the rock be removed out of his place?" As 
for : "He teareth himself in his anger," they said he had 
a devil and was mad; that he rended his own soul to 
bring out his burning invectives against them, and his 
denunciations of woe upon them for their manifold 
crimes, with as many hypocrisies to cover them." 

What follows in the next two verses shows, with 
the light already gained on the subject, that it is of the 
enemies and opposers of Jesus in his day, that this is 
written, and of him, as hated and opposed by them. 

"Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put 
out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine. 

"The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, 
and his candle shall be put out with him." 

In these highly poetic formulas of the prophetic 
text these words of Bildad — the scribe — are addressed, 
drama wise, to Job ; he is "the wicked" whose light shall 
be "put out," and the spark of whose fire shall "not 
shine," and whose candle shall be "put out with him." 
This represents the precise attitude and thought of the 
Jews towards and of the Christ. He was a wicked blas- 
phemer, they said, who made himself before Abraham, 
and equal with God. He was in league with the prince 
of devils, they absurdly claimed, and by his power did 
he cast out devils. And now his light should speedily 
be put out, and the spark of his fire should soon cease 
to sfrine, even if they had to kill him to bring about that 
end ; hence the special significance of the last quoted 



200 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

words of Bildad: "his candle shall be put out with him." 
Once rid of him in his person, they thought, his sud- 
denly kindled and swift spreading light would as sud- 
denly cease to shine, and the pernicious doctrine he 
taught would spread no farther. They would therefore, 
put out his candle, by putting him and it out together. 
Then his followers would disperse and forsake the as- 
sembling of themselves together in his name, and the 
story of Jesus, with his tragical ending, and the break- 
ing up of his fanatical following, should become simply 
and only an astonishing tale of blasphemous assump- 
tion on his part, with its fitting punishment, and on the 
part of his believers, a story of unparallelled and blind 
credulity — to all who should hear it. This is preindi- 
cated in the next to the last verse of the speech of Bil- 
dad, which reads as follows : 

"They that come after him shall be aston- 
ished at his day, as they that went before him 
were affrighted." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Job Replies to Bildad. (Job xix.) 

In this chapter we are brought down prophetically 
to the time of the Protestants and their sufferings at the 
hands of the Papacy. And just as Job is made to speak 
of the Christ as though speaking of himself, because 
there was no other way for it in a drama like this, so he 
is made to speak here in this chapter of the afflictions of 
the church of Christ as though they were his own. Let 
this be understood and then there will be no great dif- 
ficulty in understanding the meaning of this chapter, 
nor in making its application according to its intent. In 
seeking to make it apply to the patriarch Job, with his 
family and friends, the critics have displayed great 
learning and much ability at darkening counsel by 
words without wisdom ; and that, where very little of 
either is necessary to anyone possessing the proper clue 
in the Messianic Testimony of it all, to begin with, to 
continue with, and to end with. It has been said some 
time since, that these, so-called, friends of Job represent, 
not only the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees, in their 
hatred and persecution of Jesus, the Christ, in his day, 
but all of those like unto them who should come after 
them, and in their priestly and official capacities, hate 
and persecute Christ in the body of his people and who 
should call themselves Christians. 



202 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

It is to these later-day chief priests, scribes, and 
Pharisees of the now apostate church, that we must now 
turn our attention if we would rightly understand this 
chapter of protest and lamentation on the part of Job; 
for ii is the thus voiced outcry of Protestant Christianity 
against the crimes and corruptions of the Papal-Roman 
Hierarchy, followed by a recognition of the hand of God 
in it all, including the terrible sufferings inflicted upon it 
by the Mother Church, now, like the ostrich, "hardened 
against her young ones, as though they were not her 
own," and all ending in a burst of triumph in the sure 
hope and faith of a future redemption out of all its trou- 
bles, together with a final warning of the judgment of 
God upon its enemies, as follows : 

"Then answered Job and said : 

"How long will ye vex my soul, and break 

me in pieces with words? , 

"These ten times have ye reproached me : 

ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves 

strange to me." 

This is in allusion to the anathemas and maledic- 
tions that were heaped upon the devoted heads of the 
dissenters from the authority of Papal Rome, seeking to 
vex their soul and break them in pieces with terrifying 
words. These were all that now remained true to the 
principles and life of primitive Christianity, and with the 
courage to protest against the abuse of authority on the 
part of the dominant church in its efforts to suppress the 
God-given right of private judgment and freedom of 
speech in matters pertaining to religion. At first, this 
was sought to be accomplished by the free use of in- 
vectives and denunciations, so to "vex my soul, and break 
me in pieces with words" — Job, speaking of. the perse- 
cuted church in his own person, as he has done heretofore 
of the Christ. . . ... 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 203 

"These ten times" signify no literal or exact num- 
ber of times, but the totality of all the times or occa- 
sions when their soul had been vexed, and they were 
broken in pieces with words hurled at them like stones, 
with the intent to break them to pieces and scatter them 
to the winds. Neither were these persecutors of Christ 
in his people, ashamed that they had hardened them- 
selves against him, and become strangers to his spirit, or 
"that ye make yourselves strange to me," as Job is made 
to speak. Next he says : 

"And be it indeed that I have erred, mine 
error remaineth with myself." 

This was the true spirit of Protestantism; let them 
think and judge for themselves without let or hindrance 
from those in assumed authority over them. Then, if 
they erred in judgment, their error remained with them- 
selves ; no one else need adopt it, and they themselves 
alone would take the consequence of their error. Had 
not their great Teacher himself warned them against a 
blind, unthinking subservience to authority in matters of 
opinion, saying, "Yea, and why even of yourselves judge 
ye not what is right?" And now in reserving to them- 
selves the right to judge even of themselves what was 
right, their error, if any, remaining with themselves, 
these brave, true men brought on themselves the wrath- 
ful objurgations of the dominant church, which had ar- 
rogated to itself the right to judge for them what was 
right. And this is what is signified by vexing his soul, 
and breaking him in pieces with words, together with the 
tenfold or totality of the reproaches heaped upon him, 
as thus rendered in the speech of Job. Then follows 
these words : 

"If indeed ye will magnify yourselves 
against me, and plead against me my reproach: 



204 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"Know now that God hath overthrown me, 
and hath compassed me with his net." 

This was the spirit and the pleading of the Christ 
when the assembly of the wicked had encompassed him 
about as with a net to overthrow him at his trial before 
Pilate, who had asked him if he knew not that he, Pilate, 
had power to crucify him or to release him? And he an- 
swered him, "Thou couldst have no power at all against 
me, except it were given thee from above." In a word, 
it was God who had overthrown him, and compassed 
him with his net, these wicked, being but his hand 
whereby he worked his sovereign will. It is the same 
here where what is treated of is his persecuted and tem- 
porarily overthrown church — all spoken of in the person 
of Job. They might magnify themselves against it, and 
plead against it their reproaches as though it were a 
guilty thing, and had brought all of these things upon 
itself by its own revolt against the authority of the 
church — which they did bring against it. Yet let them 
know now that they could have no power at all over their 
victim except it had been given them from above. It is 
all a repetition of the crucifixion-scene in a large, historic 
way, that is foreshadowed here, and as foretold by the 
Christ himself, saying: "For if they do these things in 
a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" And we 
are now come in this elder prophecy of it all, to the time 
of the dry tree when greater things should be done, and 
were done, in the way of persecution, and suffered in 
the way of affliction, than ever before or afterward. What 
now follows is with reference to the persecutions suf- 
fered by the Protestant body at the hands of the Papists 
— all put in the person of Job, as befits the drama. In 
verses 11 and 12 we read: 

"He hath also kindled his wrath against 
me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his 
enemies. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 205 

"His troops come together, and raise up 
their way against me, and encamp round about 
my tabernacle." 

Dr. Clarke, in his learned but mistaken comments 
on this chapter, says : "From the seventh to the thir- 
teenth verse there seems to be an allusion to a hostile 
invasion, battles, sieges, etc." Then follows a vain at- 
tempt to make it apply to the patriarch Job, reducing it 
all to a personal quarrel between him and some "neigh- 
bouring chief," who comes and surrounds Job's tent, and 
makes trouble for him with his men. Even so far as 
this, are all the wise and learned who have written on 
this subject, from anything like a conception of the real 
and true greatness of the theme, and of the poetic gran- 
deur of its treatment by the author. There is indeed an 
allusion to battles, sieges, and hostile invasions, in these 
disguised phrases of the prophet ; but it is of the coming 
together of the armies of Anti-Christ, and the raising up 
of their way against the Christ, and encamping round 
about his tabernacle, that this is written in Messianic 
prophecy, and all of which was fulfilled in the history 
of the crusades of Anti-Christ against Protestant Chris- 
tianity, when there were battles and sieges, and his 
troops came together and raised up their way against 
him, and encamped round about his tabernacle in the 
most matter of fact and literal way possible. 

From this, on to the 22nd verse, all is lamentation 
and sorrow for the putting far from him of his brethren — 
of the church — that he was a stranger and an alien in 
their sight — because he had dared to dissent from their 
authority, and to protest against their wicked and blas- 
phemous assumptions of their right to take away their 
right to judge of themselves the things that were right, 
and also of the things that were wrong, even in the 
church. 



206 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

In verse 17, he says: 

"My breath is strange to my wife, though I 
intreated for the children's sake of mine own 
body." 

This is the "wife" we have seen in the prologue of 
the drama, tempting her husband to "curse God and die." 
And it was shown that she is the church in apostacy, 
tempting her dissentient and protesting members to 
curse God and die the death of apostates from the pure 
faith of Christ, by forswearing their allegiance to him 
and transferring it to the Church — the once-faithful city 
— now "become an harlot," wherein righteousness once 
lodged, "but now, murderers." Here, the words, "My 
breath is strange to my wife," signify that the once pure 
and spotless Bride of Christ has now alienated herself 
from Him, and become a stranger to his spirit, and a 
persecutor of him in the body of his few still faithful 
ones in the midst of the general apostacy. And that it 
is the apostate and persecuting church that is here shown 
in the figure of the alienated and estranged wife of Job, 
becomes clear in the 22nd verse, where Job cries out, 

"Why do ye persecute me as God, and are 
not satisfied with my flesh?" 

There can be no possible explanation of this, save 
in the assumption of the Papacy to sit as God in the chair 
of St. Peter, and deal out damnation to the souls of all 
"heretics." Not satisfied with slaughtering them with 
"the edge of the sword," as Job's messengers reported to 
him they had done, nor with burning them alive at the 
stake, and tearing them to pieces on the rack — in a word, 
not satisfied with putting forth their hand now, and 
touching their bone and their flesh, as Satan demanded 
of the Lord that he should do with Job, they affected the 
ability of God "to destroy both soul and body in hell," 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 207 

thus seeking to terrify them into submission to their au- 
thority by threatening them with the pains of hell, if they 
persisted in their defiance thereof. In short, they as- 
sumed the prerogative of God, to whom alone belongs 
the power to destroy the soul in hell, or to save and exalt 
it to heaven. And this is the whole mystery of these 
remarkable words of Job : 

"Why do ye persecute me as God, and are 
not satisfied with my flesh?" 

Next follows this : 

"Oh that my words were now written ! oh 
that they were printed in a book! 

"That they were graven with an iron pen 
and lead in the rock forever !" 

There is no possibility that any person ever desired 
to have his words literally written in rock with an iron 
pen, or other inscribing or engraving instrument, and 
then that the cut out characters should be filled up with 
lead. This, therefore, is simply a strong figure of the 
hope and faith of a permanent and practically imperish- 
able record of his words on the part of some speaker to 
the world of mankind, and one who knew the importance 
of his speech to all future generations of men. So should 
it be imperishably "printed in a book." That book was 
to be The Word of God. And these words of Job are 
simply and only the prophetical forecast in the form and 
words of a speaking figure of the Christ to come, who 
when he was come, should say the same thing in other 
words, as follows : 

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my 
word shall not pass away." — Matthew, 24:35. 

We come now in the next three verses to things 
which all the critics agree to call matters of the first im- 
portance,, yet which they cannot agree upon as to their 



208 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

meaning. As a matter of course they are all radically in 
error in their so-called interpretation of them, and as a 
matter of fact, all about equally so. As a matter of 
course, because their criticisms are all predicated upon 
the false hypothesis of a real person and actual speaker, 
called "Job." The later critics, such as Clarke and 
Cowles, are no better informed on these passages than 
Fuerst and Gesenius with their Standard Lexicons and 
their vast learning - . These much commented upon verses 
are these : 

"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and 
that he shall stand at the latter day upon the 
earth : 

"And though after my skin, worms destroy 
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : 

"Whom I shall see for myself, and mine 
eyes shall behold, and not another ; though my 
reins be consumed within me." 

This has been very readily accepted by some of the 
critics at its face value, as implying that their Job had 
a belief amounting to certainty, that at some far off time 
in the future the Messiah should come and stand on the 
earth, and that he, Job, should see him with his own eyes 
of flesh, and not another for him ; thus, that he should be 
bodily resurrected at that time. Others have construed 
it to mean that Job here expresses the certain faith that 
he shall be delivered out of all his present troubles dur- 
ing" his present life, though perhaps late therein, and 
these point triumphantly to the account in the latter part 
of the narrative, of his actual restoration to health, and 
the giving" to him by the Lord, of twice as much wealth 
as he had before, in vindication of this theory of theirs. 
Still others claim that it refers to a spiritual sight of his 
redeemer, after his bodily death. This theory necessi- 
tates the finding of a fault with the received translation 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 209 

which makes Job say that in his flesh he shall see God. 
These therefore, translate the text in a way to make it 
accord with their notion, making it read, "yet out of my 
flesh, or without my flesh shall I see God." 

This tampering- with the translation to make it ac- 
cord with their notions of what the text signifies, seems 
to have been a common practice among the critics of Job ; 
and it must be owned that in some few instances they 
have succeeded in making it easier of a rational interpre- 
tation and a practical application on other grounds than 
their own, though never on their own ground. But this 
is not one of those instances ; for the text now before us 
in the received version renders the true intent of the orig- 
inal, just as it reads, "yet in my flesh shall I see God." 
For it is not of the restoration or the- resurrection of Job 
that it treats, but of the resurrection of the destroyed 
and practically dead body of Protestant Christianity, of 
which, and its hope and faith of a future resurrection, 
Job is but a speaking figure in Messianic prophecy. His 
"flesh," in which he shall yet see God, signifies the organic 
body of that church restored to life and reconstructed. 
In a word, it is the Reformation of Christianity that is 
here indicated, and not the restoration or resurrection of 
any individual, either temporally or spiritually. 

For we are now come in the poem proper, to that 
period of time and its events which is briefly fore- 
shadowed in the prologue as the fall of the house of Job, 
and the death of his seven sons in the fall thereof, which 
things have been shown to mean the temporary downfall 
and death of the Protestant Church. Here they are ex- 
patiated upon in a larger way in the body of the poem, 
still under the figure of the afflicted and fallen patriarch, 
who in a burst of triumphant faith is made to exclaim : 
"And though after my skin, worms destroy my body, or 
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." These words, 
"skin." "worms,? "body," and "flesh," are none of them 



210 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

to be taken literally, being simply adaptations to the 
figure of a mortal man chosen to represent the perse- 
cuted and destroyed church. This known and under- 
stood, there is no great difficulty in the text. This not 
known nor understood, it is beset with difficulty on every 
side, and which cannot be overcome by any other means 
or method than those here laid down. 

The next verse is equally easy of interpretation and 
application to Christian history in the light of the Mes- 
sianic meaning of it all. This reads : 

"Whom I shall see for myself, and mine 
eyes shall behold, and not another; though my 
reins be consumed within me." 

What is signified by this saying of Job, that he 
should see God for himself, and his own eyes should be- 
hold Him, and not another's for him, is simply this : We 
are now come in prophetic time to the taking away of 
the right of private judgment concerning spiritual 
things, from the enslaved subjects of the dominant 
church, that right, privilege and duty which the Christ 
himself had enjoined upon them to exercise and perform, 
but which "they were now forbidden to enjoy. They 
must see God through the eyes of their superiors, in 
usurped authority, or not at all. It is in reference to the 
restoration to the church of this God-given right of pri- 
vate and personal judgment at some future time, which 
he speaks of as "the latter day," that Job says he shall 
see God for himself, and not any other or others for him, 
though now, his "reins" are consumed within him. 

What is signified by this consuming of his reins 
within him, is only this : When this book was written, 
all or most of the bodily organs of man had been 
raised up to a place among the representatives of his 
spiritual parts and powers ; thus, the "heart," the "head," 
the "hands," the "feet," the "eyes," the "ears," the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 211 

"nose," and even the "bowels," had taken place as rep- 
resentatives of things of the mind and soul of man, and 
of God. Here, as well as in other scripture, the "reins," 
or in strictly anatomical parlance, the kidneys, are also 
elected to a representative place in scripture symbology. 
Hence the only proper criticism of the phrase, with its 
connections, resolves itself into an interpretation of the 
symbolical meaning of the word "reins," as used here, 
and of what is meant by the reins of the subject being 
consumed within him. 

To this easy and agreeable task we now address 
ourselves; first however, to show up the absurdity of 
supposing that the word "reins" has here, or elsewhere 
in scripture, any literal meaning whatever, we quote a 
passage from Psalms, 16 :7, in which the same word oc- 
curs : 

"I will bless the Lord, who hath given me 
counsel : my reins also instruct me in the night 
seasons." 

Here a literal construction of the word, "reins," 
would make the last clause of the passage read : "my kid- 
neys' also instruct me in the night seasons." Equally 
absurd is the conclusion that the word has been intended 
to have a literal application, either here in Job, or in any 
of the half dozen or more places where it is used in scrip- 
ture. But now to discover what the Psalmist means in 
saying that in addition to the counsel of the Lord, his 
own reins also instruct him in the night seasons, let us 
inquire into the natural function of those organs of the 
body, the reins, from which a figurative use has been de- 
rived in scripture. Their function is to separate the im- 
pure fluids of the body from the pure, and to reject 
or cast out the impure from the system, thus saving it 
from poisoning throughout, while the pure and whole- 
some is elected to remain in the system. It is from this 



212 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

double, or elective and eliminative office of the reins of 
the natural body, that the figure has been derived of the 
elective and eliminative function of the understanding 
or judgment — electing and separating and retaining 
truth, and eliminating and casting out error. So we see 
that what the Psalmist means is that in addition to the 
giving to him of the counsel of the Lord, his own under- 
standing instructs him as to what is good or evil, true or 
false, and enables him to elect the true and pure to re- 
main with him, and to reject the false and evil from his 
mind and "heart." 

Precisely the same meaning attaches to the word 
"reins" here in Job, as there in Psalms, and in other 
passages of scripture, it always being used in the sym- 
bolical sense, and signifying the discriminating and sep- 
arating, electing and rejecting faculties of the mind 
which are included in the term, Judgment. And the full 
meaning of these words of Job, when he says, "though 
my reins be consumed within me," is, though my right, 
my God-given right to judge of myself the things which 
are right, and the things which are wrong-, has been 
taken from me; or the right of judgment on my own ac- 
count, has been destroyed. The application is to the de- 
privation of the right of private judgment which the vic- 
tims of the rule of Papacy suffered from it ; for Job is 
here speaking of the persecuted and robbed body of 
Protestant Christianity, in his own person, and as of him- 
self — robbed of the right to judge of themselves the 
things which are right, which Jesus himself had enjoined 
upon them to cherish and to use, and thus reduced from 
the state of freedom into which Christ had brought them, 
to a state of unthinking vassalage to a rigid and cruel 
Ecclesiasticism. But they knew that their Redeemer 
still lived, and that in the "latter day" he should again 
stand on the earth — in the body of his redeemed, resur- 
rected, and reconstructed church. And this is the sub- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 213 

ject of this glorious outburst of a triumphant faith from 
the lips of this speaking figure of the Christ in his now 
afflicted church, which is the "body" of which he says, 
though after its "skin" — its outer integument — "worms" 
—destroyers — should destroy it — reduce its entire or- 
ganic structure to dust and ashes — which they did, yet in 
his "flesh," an alternate term for that "body," he should 
see God — which he did and does today. 

In the next verse we read : 

"But ye should say, Why persecute we him, 
seeing the root of the matter is found in me?" 

This, in prophecy and in substance, is that saying 
of Jesus to those Jews whom these three represent: 
"Why go ye about to kill me?" — a man who had told 
them the truth, and in whom the root of the whole mat- 
ter of the truth was found. It has been said before this, 
that these three opponents of Job represent not only the 
Jewish persecutors of Jesus, the Christ, in his day and 
theirs, but also the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees of 
the Christian church after it had degenerated into 
Churchanity. The first of these, persecuted and killed 
the Christ in his person ; these, now before us in 
prophecy, persecuted and killed him in his people. And 
it is to these, that the words of Job are now addressed, 
as though speaking of and for himself, while always it is 
of and for the Christ that they are written, saying here 
in a figure called Job : 

"But ye should say, Why persecute we 
him, seeing the root of the matter is found in 
me?" 

In him who said of himself, 

"I am the root and the offspring of David, 
and the bright and morning star," 



214 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

we find the root of the whole matter of all these blos- 
somings of divine poesy which we call the Book of Job. 
In the last verse of this chapter he says to his perse- 
cutors : 

"Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath 
bringeth the punishments of the sword, and ye 
may know there is a judgment." 

This, in brief, and aforetime, is what Jesus taught 
of the "sword" and the "judgment," saying, 

"Think not that I am come to send peace on 
earth : I came not to send peace, but a sword." 

And of Judgment : 

"For judgment I am come into this world 

>> 

And again he says : 

"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath 
committed all judgment unto the Son." 

It is of this sword, and this judgment, that he here 
warns his murderers to be afraid, and to know "there is 
a judgment" for them. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Zophar's Answer. (Job xx.) 

This chapter, containing Zophar's answer to Job, 
contains nothing new, except fresh illustrations of his 
old idea that Job is the greatest of sinners, and for this 
cause only, he is the greatest of sufferers. It is as fine 
in poetry as it is false in philosophy, being as it is, con- 
structed throughout in the highest style of the poet-au- 
thor's literary art, which shows for itself the utter ab- 
surdity of supposing that it was ever spoken extem- 
poraneously, in the heat of debate, or indeed, under any 
other conceivable circumstances, and that it is all the 
work of one of the greatest scholars and poets the world 
has ever seen. In verse 5, he says, 

"That the triumphing of the wicked is short, 
and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment." 

And in verse 17, 

"He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the 
brooks of honey and butter." 

And at last, 

"The heaven shall reveal his iniquity ; and 
the earth shall rise up against him." 

"The increase of his house shall depart, and 
his goods shall flow away in the day of his 
wrath." 

"This is the portion of a wicked man from 
God, and the heritage appointed unto him by 
God." 



216 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

In short, it is all the old Jewish philosophy to the 
effect that prosperity is the one sure sign that a man is 
pure and holy in the sight of God ; and that adversity is 
an equally certain token of his wickedness, and of God's 
displeasure towards him. Thus we see that this is the 
anticipated argument of the ruling* classes of the Jews 
against Jesus. He was not a prosperous one in the world, 
but poor and needy, not having where to lay his head. 
He was despised and rejected of men, and therefore, not 
approved of God ; a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief, and in their view, 

"This is the portion of a wicked man from 
God, and the heritage appointed unto him by 
God." 

And this, with all its beautiful rhetoric, supplied by 
the poet, is the sum and the substance of Zophar's argu- 
ment against Job. Neither the rhetoric nor the argu- 
ment is Zophar's, he never having any existence as such ; 
his argument against Job, is the argument against Jesus 
by those whom he. represents — first, the Christ-hating 
Jews in general, and the Pharisaic element in particular; 
and then the same in the Christian church in after cent- 
uries. For though we are now in that time-period of 
the prophecy which corresponds to that historic period of 
time when the main body of the church had become 
alienated from the spirit of Christ, and become a per- 
secutor of him in the "very small remnant" of the faith- 
ful which the Lord of hosts had left unto him, there is 
here, as often there is throughout, a ^recurrence to first 
principles, and an allusion to the Christ in his own per- 
son, and to what he suffered from his persecutors. What 
they did unto him, they did unto his ; and what they did 
unto his, they did unto him. There is no separation of 
him from his, in this work. Yet the prophecy has its 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 217 

time-periods corresponding to those of its fulfilling his- 
tory ; and it is necessary to a clear understanding of it all, 
to get and keep these clearly in mind. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Job Answers Zophar. (Job xxi.) 

It will not be possible here to take up and comment 
upon every verse or passage of this answer of Job, but 
only to treat it in substance. And the substance of his 
argument is that Zophar has lied in what he has said of 
the wicked — that while they may be prospered for a lit- 
tle time, yet they are always certain to be judged and 
punished in this present life, and their wealth taken 
away from them, and their honor and glory turned to 
dishonor and shame ; or as he says in verse 28 of his 
speech : 

"The increase of his house shall depart, and 
his goods shall flow away in the day of his 
wrath." 

To all of this, Job replies : 

"Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, 
yea, are mighty in power?" 

"Their seed is established in their sight with 
them, and their offspring before their eyes." 

"Their houses are safe from fear, neither 
. is the rod of God upon them." 

"Their bull gendereth, and faileth not ; their 
cow calveth, and casteth not her calf." 

"They send forth their little ones like a 
flock, and their children dance." 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 219 

"They take the timbrel and harp, and re- 
joice at the sound of the organ." 

"They spend their days in wealth, and in a 
moment go down to the grave." 

"Therefore they say unto God, Depart from 
us ; for we desire not the knowledge of thy 
ways." 

"What is the Almighty, that we should 
serve him? and what profit should we have, if 
we pray unto him?" 

It is easy to see whose doctrine this is — that it is 
the doctrine of Jesus who said, "The children of this 
world are wiser in their generation than the children of 
light." That they are more devoted to their end and 
aim, more diligent in their work, and more consistent 
with their profession and purpose than the children of 
light ; and that verily they have their reward according 
to their work. On the other hand, it is just as easy to 
see who Zophar is — that he is a Jew, with Jewish ideas 
of justice and judgment; that the wicked is always 
brought to judgment in this world, while Job replies in 
the spirit and doctrine of Christ, saying in verse 30 of 
this chapter, 

"That the wicked is reserved to the day of 
destruction ; they shall be brought forth to the 
day of wrath," 

asking his opposer if he does not know this. Before 
this, in verse 27, he says : 

"Behold, I know your thoughts, and the de- 
vices which ye wrongfully imagine against me." 

Now of what great significance is it to us, or what 
could it ever have been to anyone, that it should have 
been placed on record in the Word of God, and the record 
providentially kept and preserved through all the inter- 



220 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

veiling centuries of time until today, that once there was 
a man in the land of Uz by the name of Job, who had a 
long controversy with a certain three professed friends, 
but real enemies, and that this man Job could read their 
thoughts before they gave them utterance in words, and 
could and did fathom the depths of their wicked hearts, 
and knew all the evil devices which they wrongfully 
imagined against him? No one can imagine any great 
significance to us of the present day in this, as a record 
of an actual circumstance which occurred ages ago. 

But if evidence can be furnished from other scrip- 
ture that this is written of the Son of God, who says in 
Revelation, 2:23, ". . . I am he which searcheth 
the reins and hearts . . ." then will there be 
wrought another link in the chain of evidence that this 
book of scripture now before us does indeed testify of 
Him. And turning now to the Gospel according to St. 
John, 2 :23, 24, 25, we read : 

"Now when he was in Jerusalem at the 
passOver, in the feast day, many believed in his 
name, when they saw the miracles which he 
did." 

"But Jesus did not commit himself unto 
them, because he knew all men, 

"And needed not that any should testify of 
man : for he knew what was in man." 

Then in Matthew, 9:3, 4, after Jesus had said to a 
man sick of the palsy: "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins 
be forgiven thee," it is written : 

"And behold, certain of the scribes said 
Avithin themselves, This man blasphemeth; 

"And Jesus knowing their thoughts, said, 
Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 221 

"For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be 
forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?" 

They had said' this "within themselves" — not openly, 
not to be heard by anyone but themselves. But behold, 
he knew their thoughts, and the devices which they 
wrongfully imagined against him, just as it is written of 
him here in Job that he did. Moreover, it is of the same 
Jesus, and the same Scribes and Pharisees that this is 
written, both in the gospel according to St. John, and in 
the same gospel according to St. Job. Other instances 
are on record in the gospels where Jesus knew the 
thoughts of his enemies, and of his friends as well. In 
Psalms it is written, "The Lord knoweth the thought of 
man." And again : "Thou understandeth my thought 
afar off." Then in Hebrews, 4:12, we are told that, 
". . . the word of God is quick and powerful," and 
"is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." 
And if we imagine for a moment that it is of the patriarch 
Job that it is here written that he was a discerner of the 
thoughts and intents of the heart of his enemies, we 
shall be so far misled by "the letter that killeth" interpre- 
tation. It is of the Word who was made flesh, that it is 
written here : 

"Behold, I know your thoughts, and the de- 
vices which ye wrongfully imagine against me." 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Eliphaz Answers. (Job xxii.) 

After a few preliminaries, Eliphaz accuses Job of 
great wickedness on general principles, and charges him 
specifically with many crimes in particular: 

"Is not thy wickedness great? and thine 
iniquities infinite?" 

This in general, refers to the attitude of the chief 
priests towards Jesus with reference to his claims. He 
had made himself equal with God, they said. He had 
said he was Lord of the Sabbath day; and that he had 
the power to forgive sins, which power belonged to God 
only. He had pretended to cast out devils in the name, 
and by the power of God, while yet it was by Beelze- 
bub, the prince of devils, that he did these works. In 
short, he was a wicked blasphemer of things holy, in 
everything he said or did. Therefore, his wickedness 
was great, and his iniquities infinite, as in a figure of 
the same, Eliphaz says Job's were. Then specifically : 

"For thou hast taken a pledge from thy 
brother for nought, and stripped the naked of 
their clothing." 

"Thou hast not given water to the weary to 
drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the 
hungry. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 223 

"But as for the mighty man, he had the 
earth ; and the honourable man dwelt in it." 

"Thou hast sent widows away empty, and 
the arms of the fatherless have been broken." 

"Therefore snares are round about thee, 
and sudden fear troubleth thee;" 

"Or darkness, that thou canst not see ; and 
abundance of waters cover thee." 

All of these charges of Eliphaz against Job are very 
strange and wholly unaccountable from the narrow and 
literal point of view. First of all, that he should accuse 
a man like Job, distinguished above all men for his up- 
rightness, as he is made to be in the prologue of the 
drama, with great wickedness, and of infinite iniquity, 
and this, after the Lord himself has twice called him his 
perfect and upright man, insomuch that his equal in 
these respects is not in the whole earth — this at once 
takes the whole matter quite out of the actual and real, 
as related and described, and places it all in the realm 
of parable or allegory, and as such, demanding inter- 
pretation on purely symbolical grounds. 

Then, that one like Job, great, rich, powerful, and 
"beloved of heaven o'er all the world beside," for his 
beneficences to the poor and needy, ministering con- 
stantly even to the spiritual needs and wants of all those 
about and around him, should be charged with refusing 
to give water to the weary to drink, and with holding 
back bread from the hungry ; also charging him who has 
always preached and practiced the doctrine of no respect 
of persons, either small or great, with surrendering the 
earth to "the mighty man," and with leaving "the honour- 
able man" to dwell in it, while the poor and lowly are 
driven out of it — all of this calls for explanation. Then 
as to what is meant by charging so good and great- 
hearted a man as Job with sending "widows away 



224 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

empty," and with allowing "the arms of the fatherless" 
to be "broken," without any protest on his part; and 
lastly, what is signified by the "darkness" that incloses 
him, and the "abundance of waters" which covers him, 
there is nothing more mysterious on the face of it all in 
the whole Book of Job. On the other hand, there is noth- 
ing more simple or easy of solution when once we know 
who "Job" is, and who "Eliphaz" is, or who and what 
they represent. 

It has already been shown that the great "wicked- 
ness," and the "infinite iniquity" charged against Job 
by Eliphaz, and with such enormous falsity, is the same 
tremendous falsehood concocted by the chief priests, and 
brought by them against Jesus. This eliminates the first 
great mystery from the problem, which was — how it 
could be possible that such a charge could possibly be 
brought against such an one as Job, with his great and 
high character so well established beforehand. The re- 
sult shows that it never was so brought against him, ex- 
cept in a type and figure of Messianic prophecy, which 
was fulfilled to the letter in the actual experience of 
Jesus, the Christ, who was accused of the greatest wick- 
edness, and of infinite iniquity in blaspheming his Mak- 
er's name, by the chief priests of the Jewish church in 
his day. 

And now the specific charges of Eliphaz, that Job 
had taken a pledge from his brother "for nought," and 
had "stripped the naked of their clothing," etc., etc., be- 
come equally clear when applied to Him and to his ac- 
cusers. These points brought against Job are taken from 
the Laws of Moses, which commanded to take no pledge 
from any brother for nought ; never to strip any of the 
naked, or poor, of their necessary clothing, on any pre- 
tence whatever ; and to give water to the weary to drink, 
as often as occasion offered ; also never to withhold bread 
from the hungry, when it was possible to give it. Neither 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 225 

should "the mighty man" nor "the honourable man" be 
preferred before the weak man, or the man of lowly state 
and condition, when it came to a matter of principle 
between them, but all were to be dealt with on principles 
of perfect justice and equity, regardless of great and 
high, or small and low. Particularly, widows were never 
to be "sent away empty," nor were "the arms of the fa- 
therless" ever to be "broken." But now what can pos- 
sibly be meant by these charges 'of Eliphaz against Job — ■ 
that he had done all of these forbidden things? The ex- 
planation of the critics, that they were simply flat false- 
hoods, willfully and wickedly brought against an inno- 
cent man, is entirely inadequate to the greatness and 
the gravity of the situation, which is this : 

At the time of the advent of the Christ, in the form 
and person of a poor and lowly one, like Jesus of Naza- 
reth, the Jewish nation were in a more ardent and eager 
hope and expectation of their long-promised Messiah 
than ever before. But their concept of a Messiah was 
that of one who should not only deliver them from politi- 
cal bondage, and set them as a nation, at the forefront 
of all the nations of the world, with himself as their most 
glorious king or temporal head, but he should make them 
all rich. There should no more be any poor, naked or 
hungry among them ; no more widows to be sent away 
empty, nor any arms of the fatherless to be broken; no 
more need to take any pledge of any brother for nought, 
and no more temptation to strip any naked of their cloth- 
ing, nor to do any of these forbidden things by the law 
of Moses. In short, their state was to be an ideally per- 
fect one — from the Jewish point of view — particularly 
their temporal state, when their Messiah should come. 

And now came Jesus ; a poor and needy, houseless 
and homeless person, proclaiming himself to be their 
prophesied Messiah, but apparently with no temporal 
ambitions or desires, and with none of the signs or in- 



226 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

signia of that splendor and power in which they had ex- 
pected him to appear, anywhere upon him or about him. 
They waited and watched him ; and behold ! Instead of 
exalting his followers to honors and wealth in the world, 
he reduced them to lower grades and to deeper poverty 
than they were in before, making of them the most de- 
spised sect in all the world. To follow him, meant to 
leave the world behind them, and to suffer poverty, 
shame, persecution, and' of ten, untimely and cruel death. 
As many of them as pledged their fealty unto him, to go 
forth into the world and preach his gospel, of them he re- 
quired this : 

"Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass 
in your purses, 

"Nor scrip for your journey, neither two 
coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves : for the 
workman is worthy of his meat." 

And this is the meaning of this accusation of this 
representative Jew who is called Eliphaz, against Job, 
who is Jesus : 

"For thou hast taken a pledge from thy 
brother for nought, and stripped the naked of 
their clothing." 

Those whom Eliphaz represents had no higher con- 
ception of any reward for service pledged or performed, 
than gold, or silver, or brass, in their purses, with plenty 
of coats and shoes, and staves for their support and de- 
fense. Therefore, to them, what Jesus took a pledge 
from his brother for, was simply "nought." His spiritual 
- reward of treasure laid up in heaven, was nothing to 
them. He had "withholden bread from the hungry," as 
Eliphaz says for them, in the sense that his disciples 
must needs be in enforced fastings often, and be ready 
for his sake to suffer deprivation of all the necessaries of 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 227 

life, when occasion required. The kind of religion that 
starved its votaries had no charms for the voluptuous 
Jew, who knew nothing of the bread which came down 
from heaven in Him. Their Messiah must feed them to 
the full with the choicest viands of -the earth, or he was 
no Messiah to them. Hence their scornful rejection of 
a spare-diet religion, like that of Jesus, a naked and 
hungry religion, like his, they had no use for. 

But, worst of all, this claimant- of the Messiahship, 
who should have redeemed Israel according to their 
own program, made no effort to deliver them from their 
bondage to the Roman power, and still "the mighty man, 
he had the earth ; and the honourable man dwelt in it," 
and still lorded it over them as heretofore. And now, 
what kind of a Messiah was this for them? one who 
seemed quite content to let them live and die in slavery, 
so unlike Moses who had led them out of bondage in 
Egypt, and who should have begun at once, as they 
thought, to exalt them to lordship over the nations of 
the earth. This is the meaning of the allusion of EH- 
phaz to the "mighty man" and the "honourable man" — 
Rome — still having the earth and still dAvelling in it, 
notwithstanding one had come who claimed to be their 
Deliverer and Redeemer. 

Lastly, what is meant by the charge against Job, 
of having "sent widows away empty," and of suffering 
"the arms of the fatherless" to have been "broken," is 
this : It had been written aforetime of the persecuted 
and afflicted followers of Christ : 

"Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day 
long ; we are counted as sheep for' the slaugh- 
ter."— Psalms, 44:22. 

Many wives were to be made widows in the wars of 
Anti-Christ, and left empty and bereft of their support ; 
and a vast multitude of little children made fatherless, 



228 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

and in many instances motherless also, whose parents 
were taken away, and so, their "arms" were "broken'' — 
their protectors killed. And because these things were 
suffered for Christ's sake, this speaking image of Anti- 
Christ, who is called Eliphaz, is made to charge this fig- 
ure of Christ, who is called Job, with having "sent 
widows away empty," and with having broken "the arms 
of the fatherless." In a purely representative piece of 
work like this, where figures are made to speak for 
facts, there was no other way possible to represent the 
Cross of Christ, with its reproach, than to make Eliphaz 
accuse Job of having' done these things personally. If 
we can understand what drama means and implies, well 
enough for this, there is no great difficulty to be over- 
come in this present scene, in order to see and under- 
stand it according to its original design. 

This design is to set forth the rejection of Christ 
by the Jews, because his kingdom was not of this world ; 
and what they wanted was the kingdom of this world. 
Then, what they desired, was the crown without the 
cross ; they hated and repudiated the cross of Christ. 
And here, their representative is made to go into the 
particulars of their objections to it, as charged by Eli- 
phaz against His representative, Job. In this way a 
great tale is told in a little time ; and moreover, in this 
way a personal and a living interest is shed over it all, 
which should insure its continued reading until at last 
it should be read aright, and rightly understood. Then, 
for reasons specified above, Eliphaz says : 

"Therefore snares are round about thee, 
and sudden fear troubleth thee ;" 

"Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and 
abundance of waters cover thee." 

There is something in the 69th psalm of David so 
very like this, and where the reference is so clearly to 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 229 

Christ, that it is quoted here for confirmation of the 
truth that this also is written concerning Him. The 
psalmist says, as though of himself : 

"Save me, O God; for the waters are come 
in unto my soul." 

"I sink in deep mire, where there is no 
standing: I am come into deep waters, where 
the floods overflow me." 

That this is written of the Christ, although in the 
person of David, is clearly shown in a succeeding verse 
of the same chapter, which reads : 

"They gave me also gall for my meat; and 
in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." 

And that this in Job, as to the "snares," the "sud- 
den fear," the "darkness" that encompassed him, and 
"the abundance of waters" that covered him, is also 
written of the Christ, is made as clear, first, from the 
circumstance that he himself said that this scripture 
testifies of him; and then from the fact that the logic 
of Eliphaz, that these snares which are around Job, the 
fear that troubles him, together with the darkness and 
abundance of the waters of affliction which cover him, 
are all the just retribution of the Almighty for the 
crimes he is falsely accused of committing, is the exact 
logic of the Jews when they had crucified the Christ, 
after having accused him practically, of committing all 
the crimes which Eliphaz accuses Job of committing. 

His religion made paupers of men, they said : it took 
bread from the hungry, water from the weary, and cloth- 
ing from the naked. It made widows of wives, and or- 
phans of children. Moreover, it did not deliver their 
people from the oppressor, which it would have done 
had he been their true Messiah. Away with him ! kill 
him ! crucify him ! And this is the gist of the speech of 



230 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Eliphaz against Job — the enmity of the unregenerate 
mind against the cross of Christ ; and that, for all time, 
whether of Jew or Gentile. ^ 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Job Speaks of Himself. (Job xxiii.) 

In this chapter Job makes no direct reply to Eli- 
phaz, nor to anything that has been said heretofore by 
any of the speakers against him. His speech is purely 
introspective, as though communing inwardly with him- 
self alone, as one might do in the silent watches of the 
night when alone with himself. Here the Spirit goes 
back and opens to our view the interior state of the mind 
of Christ before he had overcome the world within him, 
and shows us how he suffered inwardly, and what his 
thoughts and meditations within him were, while yet he 
was suffering the pains and enduring the pangs of that 
regeneration or second birth which it was necessary he 
should suffer and endure in order that he might be made 
"a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining 
to God . . ." unto all who should follow him "in 
the regeneration," as himself said. 

"Wherefore in all things it behooved him 
to be made like unto his brethren . . ." 

And here in this chapter we are granted the in- 
estimable privilege of seeing the interior state of his 
mind while yet in that process of transformation from 
the tempted and suffering, to the triumphant and all- 



232 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

overcoming Christ. For still this scripture testifies of 
him, as it has done from the beginning, and will do to 
the end. 

"Then Job answered and said, Even today- 
is my complaint bitter : my stroke is heavier 
than my groaning." 

By this, we understand that neither groans nor 
lamentations, nor any outward signs or expressions of 
grief or sorrow, such as men give vent to in times of 
deep distress, could avail aught to weigh or measure 
the burden or greatness of the sorrow of him who car- 
ried the sorrows of a world of sorrow in his soul. 

"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and car- 
ried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him 
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." — 
Isaiah, 53 :4. 

This from still another prophet of the Messiah, 
sheds additional and confirmatory light upon the iden- 
tity of the three false "friends" of Job. They all alike 
"esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted"— 
because of his transgressions and iniquities, just as this 
other prophet of the same things, says the Jews did es- 
teem the Christ so to have been smitten. Then he says : 

"But he was wounded for our transgres- 
sions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him ; and 
with his stripes we are healed." 

Following out the analogy between the two proph- 
ets, we find that at the last, Job becomes the Recon- 
ciler and Savior of these enemies and opposers of him- 
self and his doctrine. Thus it is seen that he was 
wounded for their transgressions, bruised for their in- 
iquities, not his own, that the chastisement of their 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 233 

peace was upon him, and that with his stripes they were 
healed — the Lord, for Job's sake, receiving them into 
his favor. The identity then of Job with Jesus, the aton- 
ing Christ, being thus clearly established at last, we are 
thus much the better prepared for the true understand- 
ing of the deep, and otherwise dark, and melancholy 
sayings and meditations of Job, in this chapter now be- 
fore us, to say nothing of what is to come afterward. 
Here in this immediate passage, he is in figure, being 
wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our in- 
iquities, with all the stripes by which we are healed, laid 
upon him in one tremendous stroke, the weight of which, 
the whole vocabulary of grief and of groans is inade- 
quate to express — the poet only venturing upon it so far 
as to render it, "my stroke is heavier than my groaning." 
This the critics have belittled down to the experi- 
ence of a suffering patriarch whose ability to groan was 
not as great as his capacity for suffering. It is the grief 
of the Son of God, for the expression of which, no words 
or sounds of human speech are adequate. This under- 
stood, the remaining verses of this chapter require no 
great amount of study to elucidate their meaning, or to 
make their designed application. They are all testimony 
of Him while yet he had not found out God to perfec- 
tion; for he was a progressive, having been made in all 
things like unto his brethren. And here in this chapter 
we are given, as in no other scripture, a glimpse of the 
meditations of his soul, as follows : 

"Oh that I knew where I might find him ! 
that I might come even to his seat!" 

"Behold, I go forward, but he is not there ; 
and backward, but I cannot perceive him:" 

"On the left hand, where he doth work, but 
I cannot behold him : he hideth himself on the 
right hand, that I cannot see him :" 



234 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Out of this deep experience of the invisibility of 
God in time and space, he taught afterwards, saying: 

"God is a Spirit; and they that worship him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth." 

In form and ceremony, it may be, but in spirit and 
in truth, it must be, or there is no response, more than 
to the bellowing of the prophets of Baal. 

"But he knoweth the way that I take : when 
he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." 

"My foot hath held his steps, his way have 
I kept, and not declined." 

"Neither have I gone back from the com- 
mandment of his lips ; I have esteemed the 
words of his mouth more than my necessary 
food." 

Concerning the Messianic meaning" and application 
of these words of "Job," I have esteemed the words of 
his mouth more than my necessary food, see Matthew, 
4:4, where it is written of Jesus, in his answer to the 
temptation of Satan — that he should "command that 
these stones be made bread," if he were the Son of God. 

"But he answered and said, It is written, 
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 

And again, when his disciples asked him something 
about bread, he said : "I have bread to eat that ye know 
not of." And they wondered if any had given him bread 
unknown to them. But he meant the bread of the word 
of God, which he esteemed more than his necessary food 
for the body, as here foretold of him in Job, Arid now 
he says : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 235 

"But he is in one mind, and who can turn 
him? and what his soul desireth, even that he 
doeth. 

For he performeth the thing that is ap- 
pointed for me : and many such things are with 
him." 

That this doctrine of the oneness of mind, and the 
invincible purpose of God, is the doctrine which Jesus 
always taught, will be easily recognized as one of the 
many proofs that this is testimony of him and of his 
doctrine. Then, "he performeth the thing that is ap- 
pointed for me," is plainly repeated in Luke, 22 :27, 
where it is written : 

"For I say unto you, that this that is writ- 
ten must yet be accomplished in me . . ." 
And again in Luke he says : 

"And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was 
determined" — 

which is the same as to say, "he performeth the thing 
that is appointed for me." For it is of the same person, 
and of the same thing appointed for him, that this is 
written in both books, Job in prophecy, and Luke in 
its fulfilling history. In verses 15 and 16 he says: 

"Therefore am I troubled at his presence : 
when I consider, I am afraid of him. 

"For God maketh my heart soft, and the 
Almighty troubleth me." 

That Jesus felt that fear of God which he taught 
others, saying, ". . . Yea, I will forewarn you 
whom ye shall fear," is clearly foreshadowed in this 
text. It is his own confession : "when I consider, I am 
afraid of him." Every soul of man that is aroused and 
undergoing regeneration, is at times "troubled at his 



236 . THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

presence." And when it considers, it is "afraid of him." 
And this is a drama of the regenerating man, for whom 
Jesus, the Christ, is here made the chief exemplar. The 
parallel passage to the second of the two verses quoted 
above, as relating to Christ, and to those who follow 
him in the regeneration, is in Psalms, 22:14: 

"I am poured out like water, and all my 
bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; 
it is melted in the midst of my bowels." 

And when it is made entirely clear in another verse 
of the same chapter that this is predicated of the Christ, 
and which reads: ". . . the assembly of the wicked 
have inclosed me ; they pierced my hands and my feet," 
it may become easier to understand that this passage in 
Job is also predicated of him, in a slightly varying 
phraseology : "For God maketh my heart soft, and the 
Almighty troubleth me." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Christ's BoctrineOf a Future Judgment. (Job xxiv.) 

This chapter is almost entirely taken up with de- 
tails and particulars of the evil doings of the wicked — 
how "Some remove the landmarks," and 'violently take 
away flocks, and feed thereof." How some "cause the 
naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no cov- 
ering in the cold." "They pluck the fatherless from the 
breast, and take a pledge from the poor." It deals with 
adulterers, murderers and thieves in their individual 
capacities, and also in combination whereby they gain 
great power to rob and oppress the poor and weak, until 
he, the wicked, "riseth up, and no man is sure of his life." 
And "Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon 
he resteth ; yet his eyes are upon their ways." 

"They are exalted for a little while, but are 
gone and brought low ; they are taken out of 
the way as all other, and are cut off as the tops 
of the ears of corn." 

For this, see Matthew, 11:23: 

"And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted 
unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell." 

And then, Luke, 18:14: ". . . For every one 
that exalteth himself shall be abased." By these, and 
kindred sayings of Jesus, we gain an idea, in the absence 



238 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

of any reality of the person of Job, of the real and true 
intent of the passage, which is to testify of Him and 
his doctrine of the ultimate abasement of every one, and 
of all that is self-exalted. And lastly, he says of this : 

"And if it be not so now, who will make me 
a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?" 

The moral of this is, that though wickedness may, 
and often does, go unpunished for a time, yet there is a 
future and a certain judgment for it, which it cannot 
escape. This, Jesus taught, saying: 

"The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment 
with this generation, and shall condemn it : be- 
cause they repented at the preaching of Jonas; 
and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. 

"The queen of the south shall rise up in the 
judgment with this generation, and shall con- 
demn it : for she came from the uttermost parts 
of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon ; 
and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here/' 

Here he says, by his prophet, 

"And if it be not so now, who will make me 
a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?" 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Bildad Answers. (Job xxv.) 

This speech of Bildad the Scribe, is modestly brief, 
it consisting of only six short verses, as follows : 

''Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and 
said, 

"Dominion and fear are with him, he 
maketh peace in his high places. 

"Is there any number of his armies? and 
upon whom doth not his light arise? 

"How then can man be justified with God? 
or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? 

"Behold even to the moon, and it shineth 
not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. 

"How much less man, that is a worm? and 
the son of man, which is a worm?" 

Here the composer of the drama makes his "Bildad" 
rebuke his "Job" for what seems to him to be his im- 
piety and presumption in justifying himself, and con- 
demning his Maker, in the midst of his afflictions, as 
where in the 16th and 17th verses of the 16th chapter he 
has said: 



240 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"My face is foul with weeping, and on my 
eyelids is the shadow of death ; 

"Not. for any injustice in mine hands: also 
my prayer is pure," 

this being representative of the suffering of Christ, and 
at the same time, of his sinlessness. His suffering was 
very great; yet there was no injustice in his hands; also 
his prayer was pure. This, the Jews did not understand 
— how any one could be a great sufferer, except because 
he had been a great sinner ; and they condemned him as 
such ; and one of the greatest of his sins was that he, 
being a man, made himself equal with God, they said. 
And this speech of Bildad, rebuking Job for his pre- 
sumption in justifying himself before God, or "with 
God," as he says, is simply representative of their thought 
of Jesus, and of what they considered his great and high 
presumptions. It is the last of the speeches of the three 
opposers, and is as becomingly short as it is appro- 
priately weak, having been purposely so designed to be, 
in the drama wherein nothing is of record, but everything 
is of design. 

After this, Job has everything his own way until his 
last word is spoken, when suddenly and unexpectedly a 
fourth speaker bounds into the arena of what was sup- 
posed to have been a closed debate, and takes up the 
cudgels against Job, and undertakes anew, and on his 
own account alone, the championship of their lost cause. 
His name is Elihu — a chosen and a representative name, 
like those of all the other parties to the great symbolical 
debate, including that of Job himself. But now and here, 
Job makes answer to Bildad. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Job's Answer. (Job xxvi.) 

In this chapter we have the answer of Jesus the 
Christ to those Jews who, while professing great rever- 
ence for God, denounced him as an imposter, and a false 
pretender to the Messiahship. Addressing Bildad, as 
one of their representatives, we read : 

"But Job answered and said, 

"How hast thou helped him that is without 
power? how savest thou the arm that hath no 
strength ? 

"How hast thou counselled him that hath 
•no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully de- 
clared the thing as it is? 

"To whom hast thou uttered words? and 
whose spirit came from thee ?" 

He himself had helped him that was without power, 
had saved the arm that had no strength. He had coun- 
selled him that had no wisdom, and plentifully declared 
the thing as it is. But what had they done, with all 
their boasted wisdom and knowledge of things divine, in 
any of these ways? Whom had they helped, strength- 
ened, or saved? This was his answer to the Bildads of 
his day, his -challenge to them to contrast their empti- 
ness of good works with the fullness of his. And the 



242 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

correspondence to these words of Job to Bildad, is found 
in the gospel record where Jesus exhorted him and all 
his like to believe, if not for his word's sake, then to be- 
lieve on him, that he came from God, for the sake of his 
many good works which he had done. Then his query, 

"To whom hast thou uttered words? and 
whose spirit came from thee ?" 

is his demand to know what, with all their preaching, 
they had ever said to save a soul? or what with all of 
their compassing of sea and land to make one convert, 
had they ever accomplished more than to make him two- 
fold more a child of hell than themselves? And if he 
cast out devils by the Spirit of God, by whose spirit did 
they cast them out? Or in the words of Job, addressed 
to their representative, " Whose spirit came from thee?" 
— for this is the sole significance of his query. Other- 
wise, it has none of sufficient importance to make it 
worth the time and trouble. As it is, its significance is 
very great. 

In the remaining ten verses of this short chapter 
Job goes far beyond his predecessor in acknowledging 
the power of God to be infinite and unsearchable ; and 
after describing a goodly number of the great and won- 
derful things which he does, he exclaims : 

"Lo, these are parts of his ways : but how 
little a portion is heard of him ; but the thunder 
of his power who can understand?" 

How very like the Christ, who never could suf- 
ficiently exalt the greatness of God, in the estimation of 
his hearers, saying only in his simple and unaffected 
phrase, "My Father is greater than I." And what is 
said of this, in the name and under the figure of Job, 
is but a poetic expansion, and a dramatic rendering - of 
his governing and divine idea of the greatness of God, 
and the smallness of man's apprehension of the same. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Job Protests His Integrity. (Job xxvii.) 

This chapter begins as follows : 

"Moreover Job continued his parable, and 
said:" 

This is the first intimation directly from the text, 
that Job has been speaking- in parable from the begin- 
ning, that we have had. The fact that this chapter is a 
continuation of a parable, implies the fact that his whole 
speech has been parabolic from the first; and this is true 
not only of the speech of Job, but equally so of the 
speaking of all the other characters of the drama; for 
they are all characters, and not persons, so far as the 
drama is concerned. It would be childish in the extreme 
to suppose that even the Lord himself actually spoke in 
person the words attributed to him in this strictly 
dramatic and purely representative piece of work which 
we call the Book of Job. It is simply putting the word 
of God in the Christian Dispensation, into a form of 
words, as though actually spoken by the Lord. In a 
'purely prophetic drama, like this of Job, there was no 
other way for it but to construct all the speeches of all 
the speakers, and to put the words thereof in their 
mouths, as though they themselves had spoken them. 

And here at last we are plainly, or at least impliedly, 
informed that it is all one great parable, and that, by 



244 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the author himself; for if Job has been speaking in par- 
able all this while, so have all the other speakers of the 
play. Otherwise, Ave should have had an inseparable 
mixture of fact and fable which would have forever 
made anything like a consistent and harmonious inter- 
pretation of it as a whole, quite impossible. And this is 
what it is — one whole, great parable — that of the king- 
dom of God to be set up on the earth in the latter days 
when he should come who was to come to set it up; yet 
not without first a great and terrible "travail of his 
soul." And now and here in the chapter just before us, 
as in others both before and after this, he is in the midst 
of it all ; for such as this, is the meaning of this part of 
the '"parable" in which he is now said to have been 
speaking before this, and of which, this is said to be a 
continuation. 

And what Job is said to have "said," is this, when 
he "continued his parable" : 

"As God liveth, who hath taken away my 
judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed 
my soul ; 

"All the while my breath is in me, and the 
spirit of God is in my nostrils; 

"My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor 
my tongue utter deceit. 

"God forbid that I should justify you: till I 
die I will not remove mine integrity from me. 

"My righteousness I hold fast, and will not 
let it go : my heart shall not reproach me so long 
as I live." 

While there is, in these discourses of Job, a more 
or less constant recurrence of allusion to the personal 
Christ, his personal experiences, principles and senti- 
ments, there is and has been from the beginning, a 
steady onward sweep and flow of prophetic time in cor- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 245 

respondence to the order and development of the divine, 
Messianic idea of it all, in Christian history. This must 
be kept clearly and constantly in mind in order to know 
where to look on the pages of that history for the corre- 
spondences to the prophetic types and shadows of the 
texts before us — whether to the first century, or cent- 
uries, of the Christian era, or to a later period of time. 
Without this knowledge and understanding of where we 
are, both in prophetic and in historic time, in our study 
of this book, many of its passages will be quite wholely 
unintelligible ; whereas, with this knowledge and under- 
standing, these same passages become clear and intel- 
ligible, both as to their Messianic meaning, and their 
historic application. Of this character is the first verse 
above quoted from this discourse of Job : 

"As God liveth, who hath taken away my 
judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed 
my soul ;" 

Much speculation has been indulged in as to what 
may be the possible meaning of this taking away of the 
judgment of Job, by the Almighty, and all of it worth- 
less, because misdirected — that is, to the wrong person, 
to Job ; or rather, to one who is no person, but only a 
personification, which has no judgment to be taken away, 
or to be retained. It is of the Christ that this taking 
away of his "judgment" is predicated; and also, of his 
deeply afflicted and persecuted church in the time of the 
great Apostasy when it was deprived of the right, the 
God-given right of individual and personal judgment in 
matters of eternal moment to their individual souls, and 
were required and commanded to hand over to the Papal 
Hierarchy, the care and conservation of their eternal in- 
terests, and to cease judging "of themselves the things 
that are right" — the very thing which the Christ had en- 
joined upon them to do. 



246 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

This right of private and personal judgment, the 
Protestant body of Christ refused to surrender, and were 
excommunicated and killed. Moreover, this arrogation 
to itself of the right to sit in the judgment seat of Christ, 
on the part of the Papacy, and to deal out and dispense 
salvation or damnation to the souls of men, according to 
its own good pleasure, was that taking away of his judg- 
ment, and that vexing of his soul, of which this repre- 
sentative of him to whom the Father had committed "all 
judgment" alone, is here made so grievously to complain. 
Other prophets of the Messiah have also used, this word 
"vexed," as applying to him; notably, Isaiah. See verse 
10, chapter 63, where under the heading of "Christ 
sheweth who he is," and after reading of the "great good- 
ness" of the Lord "toward the house of Israel," we come 
to this : "But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit." 

Finally, as to what is meant by the saying of Job 
that it was God, who had taken away his judgment, and 
that the Almighty had vexed his soul, this reverent 
acknowledgment of the hand of God in what had befallen 
him, although by the agency of the wicked, is in har- 
mony with the spirit of the whole piece from first to 
last. We have seen in the prologue of the drama, that 
after Job had been robbed of all his great wealth by the 
Sabeans and the Chaldeans, he, as here, acknowledged 
the hand of God in it all, saying: "The Lord gave, and 
the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the 
Lord." We have then no difficulty in understanding 
what is meant here by his saying that God had taken 
away his judgment, and that the Almighty had vexed 
his soul. And, thanks to the time-period of this part 
of the prophecy, no difficulty with what is meant by the 
"judgment" itself; for we are now in the time of the 
great persecution of the Protestants by the Papists. 

In regard to the solemn protestations of his in- 
tegrity on the part of Job, which follow this verse of the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOS 247 

judgment, we have only to think of the Christ, of whom 
this all is testimony, to quickly and clearly understand 
it all. Next, in verse 7, he says : 

"Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he 
that riseth up against me as the unrighteous." 

This, in substance, is his own saying as recorded 
in Matthew, 12:30: 

"He that is not with me is against me ; and 
he that gathereth not with me scajtereth 
abroad." 

Everywhere his enemy was "the wicked ;" and al- 
ways those that rose up against him, were "the unright- 
eous." It is of very small account that the man, Job, 
wished that his enemy might be as the wicked, and that 
whoever rose up against him should be as the unright- 
eous. It would hardly be worth the space it occupies in 
scripture. But as applied to the man, Jesus, the bearer 
of God's final message and conditions of salvation to 
mankind, it becomes well worthy of a place in the in- 
spired Word of God. And now Job philosophizes ; he 
preaches doctrine, as follows : 

"For what is the hope of the hypocrite, 
though he hath gained, when God taketh away 
his soul?" 

It is very easy here to see and to know whose doc- 
trine this is; we have only to turn to Matthew, 16:26, to 
find it preached there in almost identically the same 
words as in this place : 

"For what is a man profited, if he shall 
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or 
what shall a man sfive in exchange for his soul?" 



248 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Then in verses 11 and 12: 

"I will teach you by the hand of God: that 
w !, lch is with the Almighty will I not conceal. 

"Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it ; 
why then are you thus altogether vain?" 

When Jesus had healed a man, blind from his birth. 
and his disciples asked him who had sinned, that this 
man was born blind, he answered them : 

"Neither hath this man sinned, nor his par- 
ents : but that the works of God should be made 
manifest in him. 

"I must work the works of him that sent 
me, while it is day : the night cometh, when no 
man can work." 

He would teach them, both by the words of the 
mouth of God, and by the work of his hand also, as his 
prophet here promises that he will do ; and that which 
was with the Almighty, did he not conceal — the power 
of God — but brought it forth to the knowledge of men 
by the many great and wonderful works which he did in 
their sight. Thus he fulfilled to the letter, that which his 
prophet here foretells he would do. Then as to what 
is signified by what he says here in verse 12 : 

"Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it ; 
why then are you thus altogether vain?" 

It is this : When Jesus was brought before Pilate, 
to undergo a mock trial, it is on record in the Gospel 
according to St. John, that 

"The high priest then asked Jesus of his 
disciples, and of his doctrine": 

"Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the 
world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in 
the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and 
in secret have I said nothing. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 249 

"Why askest thou me? ask them which 
heard me, what I have said unto them : behold, 
they know what I said." 

Behold, all they themselves had seen and known 
of his works, and of his disciples ; and his doctrine had 
been openly preached and proclaimed to the world. In 
secret, he had said and done nothing. Why then, were 
they "thus altogether vain" in their belated speculations 
concerning him, his disciples, and his doctrine? This, 
and this only, is the meaning of these words of the pro- 
phet of the Messiah, as spoken by his prototype, who is 
called Job. 

The rest of this chapter, from the 13th to the 23rd, 
and last verse, is taken up by Job's account of the judg- 
ments of the wicked by the Almighty, even in this world. 
Here he seems to agree with what Zophar has said on 
this subject; but the agreement is only seeming, and par- 
tial ; for while Zophar contends that the wicked receive 
full retribution for their wickedness while yet in this 
world, it is Job's contention that this is not so; but that 
a future retribution awaits them in the other world. 
And while this may not seem to the casual reader, a 
thing of much interest or importance — that two men of 
old held ccoitrary opinions on this subject — the inter- 
est and importance deepens and greatens when we come 
to know and understand who and what these two men 
are. If one of them was only a man who lived long 
ago in the land of Uz, and whose name happened to be 
Job, and the other, merely a visiting acquaintance of 
his, who came to see him when he was sick, and they got 
into an argument on this, and kindred subjects, then we 
cannot help agreeing that it is a matter of comparatively 
small moment what they thought or said on this, or any 
other subject. 

But when we come to know that this "Job" is Jesus, 



250 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the Christ, in t}^pe and figure, and that his sentiments are 
not his own, but are doctrines of the Son of God, and 
Savior of mankind, concerning both the present and the 
future state of the wicked, then what Job says on this 
subject, becomes of the deepest and profoundest interest 
and importance ; and this, all the way through, from the 
beginning to the end of all his discourses. On the other 
hand, when we discover that this "Zophar" is not an in- 
dividual on his own account, not at all a real person, but 
a constructed type and representative, specifically, of the 
Pharisaical Jew of the time of Christ, and in general, of 
the whole body of Jewish theology and philosophy, then 
his views on this, and all other subjects, however false 
and weak they may be, in and of themselves, become sec- 
ond in interest and importance only to those of Job him- 
self; for the composer of the drama has arranged them 
here in opposition to the views of Job, as a purposed 
contrast between Jewish, and Christian, Theology. 

In further proof — not of a speculative theory, but 
of the ascertained truth that these sayings of Job are, in 
substance and effect, the doctrines of Christ, compare 
the 16th, 17th and 18th verses of this chapter with the 
teaching of Jesus on the same subject, which is, in the 
words of Job, "the portion of a wicked man with God, 
and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive 
from the Almighty." 

"Though he heap up silver as the dust, and 
prepare raiment as the clay ; 

"He may prepare it, but the just shall put 
it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. 

"He buildeth his house as a moth, and as 
a booth that the keeper maketh." 

Earth may build on earth, "temples and towers;" 
and Earth may say to Earth, "All shall be ours." But 
Jesus taught that at last, the meek "shall inherit the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 251 

earth" — with all its temples and towers, and with all 
which the proud had prepared for themselves and their 
offspring forever. And this is the final meaning of, "He 
may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the inno- 
cent shall divide the silver." 

"He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a 
booth that the keeper maketh," 

is, in part, Christ's sermon on the Sure Foundation, with 
its antithesis, the unsure. The figures are different, but 
the sum is the same. The house of the moth, and the 
booth, are slight structures, without permanent founda- 
tion ; these signify the same as the foundation of sand 
upon which the "Foolish man" of the parable built his 
house. During the remainder of this chapter, five verses, 
Job, still continuing his parable, discourses on the sub- 
ject of "The rich man;" and the outcome of it all is that 

"It is easier for a camel to go through the 
eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the 
kingdom of God."— Mark, 10:25. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Wisdom and Wealth Contrasted. (Job xxviii.) 

This chapter, consisting of 28 verses, contains no 
personal allusions to the speaker, nor to. his hearers. 
Unlike others of the discourses of Job, it utters no com- 
plaint, and there is no sound of sorrow, nor sign of 
trouble anywhere in it. It is purely didactic and revela- 
tory throughout. The first half consists of a clear and 
exact account and description of the modes and methods 
of modern hydraulic mining for the precious metals 
hidden in the earth, together with a brief allusion to the 
means anciently employed for this same purpose, but 
since, forgotten and lost, or supplanted by the improved 
methods of today. For this Book of Job is a drama of 
today, more than of yesterday ; and as such, it forecasts 
and describes, under suitable figures, all of the more 
important inventions and improvements of modern 
Christian civilization, as aids and adjuncts thereof, as 
we shall see before we reach the end. Here in this chap- 
ter, it anticipates some of them, and uses them and their 
methods of operation to illustrate the world's idea of 
wealth, and the ways and means it takes and adopts for 
obtaining it, all in sharp contrast to the divine and Mes- 
sianic idea of what constitutes wealth, and the "Way" 
by which it is acquired. The first two verses read as 
follows : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 253 

"Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a 
place for gold where they fine it. 

"Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass 
is moulten out of the stone." 

The critics carp at this word, "brass," saying that 
brass is a composite metal, formed by the union of two 
metals, copper and zinc. Therefore, copper and not 
brass, must be meant here, they say. But are not the 
ingredients of brass "moulten out of the stone," and 
mixed to make brass? And is not this refinement of 
criticism much more nice than wise? we would ask. 
Now the moral of these two verses is not in the mere 
fact that certain precious metals, such as silver and gold, 
iron and brass, exist in the earth, nor yet in the process 
by which some of them are formed through combina- 
tions of different materials. It is in the fact that their 
veins and places are "surely" known, and that they may 
be certainly found in those places. This, in contrast 
with man's ignorance and uncertainty as to where Wis- 
dom may be found, and where the place of Understand- 
ing is — those infinitely greater treasures than silver or 
gold, or iron or brass, or all of them placed together. 
The point is this : Men of the world surely know where 
their treasures lie ; that they are in the earth ; and where 
to look for them, and how to find them, they also know. 
Alid most earnestly and diligently does the' man of the 
world desire and dig for them : 

"He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; 
he overturneth the mountains by the roots. 

"He cutteth out rivers among the rocks ; 
and his eye seeth every precious thing. 

"He bindeth the floods from overflowing; 
and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to 
light," 



254 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

as said of him in the 9th, 10th and 11th verses of this 
chapter. But with the spiritually minded and unworldly 
man, it is different ; he is not nearly so certain in his 
knowledge of heavenly things as his wise neighbor, the 
man of the world, is in his knowledge of worldly things ; 
he knows where his treasure is hidden, and how to bring 
it "forth to light," and he devotes his time, his strength, 
and his life to the task. And now comes the spiritual 
man ; he wants wisdom, and desires understanding as 
his most coveted treasures ; he sees and knows how well 
his worldly minded neighbor knows where what he 
covets is concealed, how "surely" there "is a vein for 
the silver, and a place for the gold where they fine it;" 
that "Iron is taken out of the earth," and that "brass is 
moulten out of the stone." Yet he, the spiritual man, 
must needs inquire, "But where shall wisdom be found? 
and where is the place of understanding?" 

Here in this quest, the knowledge of natural things, 
which is born with him, and in him, can avail him noth- 
ing; he must "be born again," and into a new and higher 
realm of knowledge, than that of natural things, before 
he can know where wisdom can be found, or where the 
place of understanding is, or how he may purchase them : 

"For man knoweth not the price thereof; 
neither is it found in the land of the living:" 

He must die the death of the natural man before he can 
find it, and be born again, before he can behold it; for, 
as it said here, only 

"God understandeth the way thereof, and 
he knoweth the place thereof." . . . 

"And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of 
the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from 
evil is understanding." 

This, he said unto man by his Son, who was "the 
power of God, and the wisdom of God," speaking "unto 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 255 

man/' that the fear of God is the truest wisdom, and 
that to depart from evil, is the highest and best under- 
standing. The first half of this remarkable chapter is 
devoted to natural things, and the second half to spiritual 
things; and this, on the principle that first of all, comes 
that which is natural ; and last of all, that which is spir- 
itual. This is not an accidental arrangement and rela- 
tion of its parts, but by design to represent in this single 
chapter the order, the divine order, of the development 
of the Messianic Idea of the whole work into historic 
form at last; for this chapter of Job is a book within a 
book, and contains in itself, the form and order of the 
whole great work. In fact, it seems so isolated and sep- 
arate from all connection with the main body of the 
book, that some scholars have considered it as an inter- 
polation, and as having no proper place in the work 
where it is found. This is certainly an error ; for the 
moral of this chapter is the same as that of the whole 
work ; it is that of the incomparable and inestimable 
worth and value of Wisdom, both in and of itself, and 
as contrasted with wealth. It takes us into the midsc 
of the strongest and loftiest teaching of Christ, who ex- 
alted that wisdom which is the fear of God, far above all 
the wisdom of the world ; and that understanding which 
is to depart from evil, infinitely beyond that which is 
merely a knowledge of natural things. In a word, this 
wonderful and beautiful bit of oratory by this mouth- 
piece of this old prophet of the Messiah, which is called 
"Job," is, when reduced to its last analysis, simply tes- 
timony in this form, of him, his doctrine and teaching 
concerning wisdom and understanding, what they are — 
that wisdom is the fear of the Lord ; and that under- 
standing is departing from evil. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Job Reviews His Life. (Job xxix.) 

The first verse reads : 

''Moreover Job continued his parable, and 
said" 

What Job "said" in this chapter may all be summed 
up in a few words ; they are to the effect that he has 
been, in his life and conduct, that "perfect and upright 
man" which, in the prologue of the drama, the Lord him- 
self has said that he is. But first of all, we note that 
this is the second time that Job has been said to be speak- 
ing in "parable." It is true, the language of his speech 
in this chapter is highly poetic in numerous passages; 
but the first verse implies, if it does not plainly say, that 
it is all a parable, or a continuation of one whole parable 
from first to last. It is easily conceivable that in preach- 
ing doctrine, a speaker might employ parable; this, the 
Christ often did, as everyone knows ; but in a simple re- 
view and plain narration of the events and career of his 
own past life, such as this talk of Job assumes itself to 
be, and without a trace of doctrine or of abstract think- 
ing anywhere in it, it is quite inconceivable that there 
should be any use for parable. Yet the author calls it 
a continuation of a parable ; and a parable is an invented 
story for the representation of principles, and told as 
though the assumed facts and events had been actual 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 257 

facts and events, and the actors thereof, real persons. 
Such is the case in the instance before us. Job is made 
to tell the story of his past life, as though he had been 
a real person, and the facts he relates, real and actual 
events in his own experience. And it is called "his" 
parable, because he is made by the composer of the 
speech to be its speaker, though all the while it is the 
composer's own parable, or a part of his own whole great 
parable, which the story in its entirety, is. And all this 
in conformity with the needs and requirements of the 
dramatic form and method of composition, chosen by 
the author, or to which he was elected. 

It is only fair to the uncritical reader to say that 
the critics have extricated themselves and their readers 
from the dilemma as best they may, by saying that the 
word, "parable," is used here, ". . . not in the New 
Testament sense, but in the broader sense — discourse." 
But why, if the writer meant simply that Job continued 
his discourse, should he go so far out of his way to bring 
in the word "parable," with all its implications of un- 
reality as to the persons mentioned, and the facts as- 
sumed? The word "parable" is so written here, deliber- 
ately, and purposely to distinguish in this way the 
speech of Job from every other form of discourse. It is 
the speech of him of whom it is written in Psalm 78: 

"I will open my mouth in parables; I will 
utter things which have been kept secret from 
the foundation of the world." 

This whole chapter is dated, in historic time, from 
the darkest period of Christian history — from the time 
of the great persecution of Christ in the body of his 
afflicted people ; and is a review from that period of 
calamity and distress, of the former prosperity and peace 
of the church, when it was growing rapidly, and pros- 
pering greatly, and was as the Garden of Eden ere the 



258 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Serpent had entered into it and spoiled its peace. And 
now, at the time from which this chapter is dated, that 
same Serpent had long since entered into the church of 
Christ, in the shape of the lust and greed for power, do- 
minion, and glory which had come to distinguish its 
leaders, and "the once faithful city" had "become an har- 
lot," with her house full of "murders" of all who, within 
her confines dared to protest against her manifold crimes 
and profligacies, 

"And the daughter of Zion is left as a cot- 
tage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cu- 
cumbers, as a besieged city," 

as says Isaiah, of Judah in the day of her desolation. 
Then also, "the priest and the prophet" were "slain in 
the sanctuary of the Lord" — as says Jeremiah, of Jeru- 
salem. Many cities of this daughter of Zion were be- 
sieged and burned, and many priests and prophets were 
slain in the sanctuary of the Lord in the time from which 
this chapter of Messianic prophecy speaks in the person 
of Job, who now reviews his former happy state with 
all of his children about him, and with all of his acquaint- 
ance, both "the young men" and "the aged" showing him 
all of the deference that was due to his high character 
and his exalted position, together with the many and 
great deeds of kindness and beneficence that he had done 
in those days of his greatness. and glory. And all of this 
in bright contrast to the dark estate in which he now 
finds himself — his house fallen, his children dead, his 
honors turned to derision, and his glory to shame, with 
his skin black upon him, and his bones "burned with 
heat," as described in the next following chapter, where 
he pictures in language equally eloquent his present 
forlorn and wretched state — which is that of the church 
at that period in its history from which this mournful 
chapter now before us, dates its historic correspondence. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 259 

In the light of the foregoing, and that of all that has 
gone before — that is, in the light of the Messianic idea 
of it all — we may now, for the first time in its history, 
read this beautiful 29th chapter of Job, knowing at last 
to what and to whom it all refers and applies — that is, 
to the church in its desolation, and to its Head, in the 
day of his crucifixion in the person and body of his de- 
stroyed people — which in its correspondent history, is 
the organic body of Protestant Christianity. And now, 
beginning with verse 2, we read : 

"Oh that I were as in months past, as in the 
days when God preserved me; 

"When his candle shined upon my head, 
and when by his light I walked through dark- 
ness; 

"As I was in the days of my youth, when 
the secret of God was upon my tabernacle; 

"When the Almighty was yet with me, 
when my children were about me; 

"When I washed my steps with butter, and 
the rock poured me out rivers of oil;" 

The critics have, in all probability, rightly divined 
that the figure of the candle shining on the head of the 
subject of the discourse, has been derived by the author 
from an ancient custom of lighting temples and other 
places of public resort, by lighted candles suspended 
overhead, so that their light literally shone down on 
the heads of the people. Also that washing his "steps 
with butter" is another bit of Oriental imagery for 
smoothness and prosperity in the walk of life, while "the 
rock poured me out rivers of oil," is simply a figure for 
abundance of riches. But when it comes to the question 
of, To whom, or to what, do these figures refer and 
apply? they are lost — supposing it to be Job, and his 



260 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

former greater prosperity, the vanishing away of which, 
he is here so eloquently and plaintively bemoaning. 

But to us who have seen a new light shining over 
and upon this old page of Messianic prophecy, this is 
all now a perfectly clear picture, although in a highly 
ornate and poetic phrasing, still a clear and satisfying 
picture of the primitive church of Christ, its rapid and 
wonderful growth, and great prosperity, while God had 
yet preserved it from the destruction which afterwards 
it suffered. The word "tabernacle," at the end of the 
second verse, signifies the temple of Christ, in which 
dwelt his body ; and "the secret of God" which was upon 
it, was the unseen overshadowing of the Almighty ; and 
when his "children" were yet about him, was while as 
yet that prophecy had not been fulfilled : 

"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, 
and against the man that is my fellow, saith the 
Lord of hosts : smite the shepherd, and the 
sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn my 
hand upon the little ones." 

Verses 7, 8, 9, 10, are these : 

"When I went out to the gate through the 
city, when I prepared my seat in the street ! 

"The young men saw me, and hid them- 
selves : and the aged arose and stood up. 

"The princes refrained talking, and laid their 
hand on their mouth. 

"The nobles held their peace, and their 
tonerue cleaved to the roof of their mouth." 

All of this is significant of the deference which was 
paid to the Christ in his day by the multitudes of the 
people, young and old, small and great, who thronged to 
see and^to hear him. When he "went out to the gate 
through the city," to prepare his "seat in the street," 
is it written that "... a very great multitude spread 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 261 

their garments in the way." This was that he might walk 
forth from the city without touching with his feet the 
common ground on which they walked — even as courtiers 
spread carpets on the ground for their kings and queens 
to walk on. - "Others cut down branches from the trees, 
and strawed them in the way"— so greatly did they re- 
vere his sacred person. Then, as to what is specifically 
meant by the princes refraining from talk and laying 
"their hand on their mouth," and by "the nobles" holding 
their peace, while "their tongue cleaved to the roof of 
their mouth," it is of .the elders of the people, such as the 
chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees that this is 
written, and of their inability to answer Jesus in anything 
that he said to them. The only reply they could make 
to his questions was, "we cannot tell." And so, it was, 
that "The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand 
on their mouth." Another and still stronger illustration 
of the text is this : 

"But when the Pharisees had heard that he 
had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gath- 
ered together." 

Then, after one of them, a lawyer, had asked him 
which was the great commandment in the law, and he 
had answered him, he in turn asked them a question, 

"Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose 
son is he? They say unto him, The son of Da- 
vid. 

"He saith unto them, How then doth David 
in spirit call him Lord, saying, 

"The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on 
my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy 
footstool? 

"If David then call him Lord, how is he his 
son?" 



262 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

And now, mark the sequel : 

"And no man was able to answer him a 
word, neither durst any man from that day forth 
ask him any more questions." 

And so it was that 

"The nobles held their peace, and their 
tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth," 

all within the meaning, the Messianic meaning of these 
words of this old prophet of him who so truly said that 
this scripture testifies of him. After this, will anyone 
seek to evade or to make void the conclusion that at 
last, in our day, it has been shown to us, how and in 
what way and manner it so testifies? If so, it should 
seem that his hardihood must exceed that of any of those 
who durst not from that day forth ask any more ques- 
tions. And now Job adds to this : 

"When the ear heard me, then it blessed 
• me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness 
to me : 

"Because I delivered the poor that cried, and 
the fatherless, and him that had none to help 
him. 

"The blessing of. him that was ready to 
perish came upon me : and I caused the widow's 
heart to sing for joy. 

"I put on righteousness, and it clothed me : 
my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. 

"I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to 
the lame. 

"I was a father to the poor: and the cause 
which I knew not I searched out. 

"And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and 
plucked the spoil out of his teeth." 

All of this is so clearly Christie in its description, 
as to scarcely need any comment whatever, in the way 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 263 

of explanation, now that our attention has been turned to 
him, and away from Job, as the real subject of these tes- 
timonies to his many and great beneficences. That he 
was "a father to the poor," "feet to the lame/' and "eyes 
to the blind," within the practical meaning of these poetic 
phrases of his prophet, the gospel records are proof. And 
when we come to "I put on righteousness, and it clothed 
me; my judgment was as a robe and a diadem," we have 
only to turn to Isaiah, 61 :10, where the context shows 
clearly that what is written there is of the Christ, to find 
confirmation of the truth that this also is written of him, 
as follows : 

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul 
shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed 
me with the garments of salvation, he hath cov- 
ered me with the robe of righteousness, as a 
bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, 
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." 

Only the last verse of the list seems to require spe- 
cial comment ; it is this : 

"And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and 
plucked the spoil out of his teeth." 

In Proverbs, 30:14, read: 

"There is a generation whose teeth are as 
swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour 
the poor from off the earth, and the needy from 
among men." 

These are "the wicked" of whom Job says that he 
brake their jaws, and plucked the spoil out of their teeth. 
Again, in First Peter, 5:8, we read that "the devil, as 
a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may de- 
vour." This is "that wicked," of whom it is here written, 
under the figure of Job, that the Christ shall brake his 
jaws, and pluck the spoil out of his teeth. This, he did 



264 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

for all them that believed on him — broke the jaws of their 
devourer, the Devil, and plucked them as "spoil out ot his 
teeth," in the prophetic phrasing of this old prophet of 
the Deliverer from the power of the devil ; for this, and 
this only, is what is signified by the breaking of the 
"jaws of the wicked," and plucking "the spoil out of his 
teeth." 

There is nothing in the remaining eight verses which 
calls for special comment in this chapter. The student 
need only to think of the Christ, and the application is 
easily made. Take, for instance, the last verse, which 
reads : 

"I chose out their way, and sat chief, and 
dwelt as a king in the army, as one that com- 
forteth the mourners." 

Did not He choose out their way for them that fol- 
lowed after him, saying, "I am the Way . . ."* And, 
"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you . . ." 
And did not he "sit chief" among them, saying, "Ye call 
me master and Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am." Did 
not he dwell among them "as a king in the army," giving 
commands, saying, "A new commandment I give unto 
you, That ye love one another." And also, "as one that 
comforteth the mourners," saying, "Blessed are they that 
mourn ; for they shall be comforted." And, "I will not 
leave you comfortless : I will come to you." "And I will 
pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, 
that he may abide with you forever." And lastly : 

"But when the Comforter is come, whom I 
will' send unto you from the Father, even the 
Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Fa- 
ther, he shall testify of me." 

And now, if "the Spirit of truth" has had anything 
to do with this treatise, and still has, this is testimony 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 265 

of him of whom "Moses and all the prophets wrote," each 
in his own way, and this one, the greatest of them all, in 
his way — which is the Drama- Way, making the leading 
character thereof a speaking figure of the Christ. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Obverse of the Shield. (Job xxx.) 

As the preceding chapter is a picture in type and fig- 
ure, that of Job, of the character and office of Christ, and 
of the rapid growth arid great prosperity of the church 
during the first few centuries of its existence, so this 
chapter is also a picture by the same method of an exactly 
opposite state of affairs — the dishonoring of Christ, and 
the desolation of the church during the time of the great 
persecution, beginning with the Roman government, and 
culminating in the crusades by the Papal-Roman hier- 
archy. 

1. "But now they that are younger than I 
have me in derision, whose fathers I would have 
disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock 

3. "For want and famine they were soli- 
tary ; fleeing into the wilderness in former time 
desolate and waste. 

4. "Who cut up mallows. by the bushes, 
and juniper roots for their meat. 

5. "They were driven forth from among 
men, they cried after them as after a thief ; 

6. "To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in 
caves of the earth, and in the rocks. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 267 

7. "Among the bushes they brayed; under 
the nettles they were gathered together. 

8. "They were children of fools, yea, chil- 
dren of base men : they were viler than the earth. 

9. "And now am I their song, yea, I am 
their byword. 

10. "They abhor me, they flee far from me, 
and spare not to spit in my face. 

11. "Because he hath loosed my cord and 
afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle 
before me. 

12. "Upon my right hand rise the youth; 
they push away my feet, and they raise up 
against me the ways of their destruction. 

13. "They mar my path, they set forward 
my calamity, they have no helper. 

14. "They came upon me as a wide break- 
ing in of waters : in the desolation they rolled 
themselves upon me. 

15. "Terrors are turned upon me : they pur- 
sue my soul as the wind : and my welfare passeth 
away as a cloud. 

16. "And now my soul is poured out upon 
me ; the days of affliction have taken hold upon 
me." 

All of this seems a very lengthy, and an overmuch 
particularized account and description of the enemies of 
Job, and at last, of their methods of assault upon him. 
And if this were a story of the literal and actual experi- 
ences of a patriarch of Uz in a bygone age, and written 
merely to point a moral of an adorned tale, as the critics 
would have us think, or believe without thinking, this 
part of it would be out of all proportion to the need and 
purpose of the story as a whole. But as it is, and having, 
as it has, an equally specific and large correspondence in 



268 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Christian history, the proportion is just and perfect, as 
everywhere throughout the work. 

It is a law of human nature, and an observed fact of 
human experience that the lower in the descending 1 scale 
of morality and intellect a person or a people is, the more 
that person or people is given to contempt of others on 
general principles, and especially to the reviling of the 
unfortunate, and to the severest condemnation of sinners. 
It is so in society, business, politics, and in religion. Let 
a Christian minister "fall from, grace," and it will not be 
his fellow ministers who will be first and last and all the 
while to revile him; it will be the ungodly. Those will 
say: "Revile him not; the tempter hath a snare for all. 
And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath, befit his fall." 
But these will cry to a man, "Away with him ! crucify 
him ! crucify him !" 

The Christ himself could not hope to escape this fate 
— that of being hounded by "base men," and harried by 
the vile mob," "viler than the earth," when he "was taken 
from prison to judgment," although he was afflicted, not 
for any injustice in his hand; also his prayer was pure, as 
Job, speaking in his own person for him, says. It was 
a brutal soldiery, together with an equally brutish mob, 
that heaped upon him the rankest indignities which he 
suffered while undergoing a mockery of a trial before 
Pilate. It was these who stripped him of his clothing, 
and put on him a scarlet robe, to make a mock king of 
him. These it was who plaited a crown of thorns and 
put it on his head in further derision of his royalty, and 
put a reed in his right hand for a sceptre, and knelt be- 
fore him, in mock adoration, and hailed him, King of the 
Jews. It was these, that spit upon him, and took the reed 
out of his hand, and smote him on the head. And now 
he was "their song," and "their byword," crying, "King! 
King!" They abhorred him, and spared not to spit in 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 269 

his face; and why did they these things? Job tells us 
why : 

"Because he hath loosed my cord, and af- 
flicted me, they have also let loose the bridle 
before me." 

"Loosed my cord," here signifies in a figure, the let- 
ting go of that leading of him in ways of pleasantness 
and paths of peace, wherein he had walked hitherto, and 
suffering him now to fall into the hands of the wicked, 
on the part of the Almighty ; while "let loose the bridle 
before me," is in another figure, casting off all restraint 
and letting loose upon him, their wicked passions and pro- 
pensities, to aggravate the sufferings and miseries into 
which he had providentially been brought. 

And if it should be said that these vile wretches 
Avere but the tools of the chief priests and elders of the 
people, it may be added that if so, they were willing 
tools, and were used for the kind of work most congenial 
to themselves, and which they afterwards, or those of 
the same kind as themselves, entered into of their own 
motion, in their rabid persecution of the church of Christ. 
For these things, as recorded in the Gospel narratives, 
and as pertaining to the personal Christ, are the special 
historic correspondences to these prophetic forecastings 
thereof, which we have spoken of before, while the larger 
correspondence thereto is to be looked for in a later period 
of Christian history, as follows : 

During the first three centuries of the era, Christian- 
ity suffered greatly from the Roman government, osten- 
sibly, but really from the rabble population of the Roman 
provinces, which was responsible for much or most of 
the persecution suffered by the Christians, outside of the 
city of Rome. And these answered remarkably well to 
the description given of the persecutors of Job in the first 
half of this chapter : "They were children of fools, yea, 



270 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

children of base men." It was the settled policy of Rome 
to tolerate the religions of all its conquered provinces, 
without interference therewith of any kind; and left to 
itself, their peoples might all of them become Christians, 
or remained heathens, for aught the government cared. 
It was much the same with the Governors of the prov- 
inces ; they would have preferred to allow the Christians 
to exercise and enjoy their religion in their own way 
without molestation on their part. But the Roman em- 
perors of that day were not possessed of anything like 
the sovereign and supreme power of some later day sov- 
ereigns ; they were obliged to defer to the Senate to a 
considerable degree, and to yield to tradition and custom. 
Then the provincial governors were greatly influenced 
by the clamor of the populace ; and this was of so low and 
degraded a character as thoroughly to meet the descrip- 
tion of them given here in Job ; for this picture of the per- 
secutors of Job, begins with the vile mob which surged 
around the Christ at his crucifixion, baying at him in his 
agony, and which the Psalmist calls "dogs," saying: 
"For dogs have compassed me : the assembly of the 
wicked have inclosed me : they pierced my hands and my 
feet." These are the same of whom this elder prophet 
of the Messiah says, "Whose fathers I would have dis- 
dained to have set with the dogs of my flock." 

For now the prophet's vision sweeps onward through 
the centuries when the clamor of the mad populace liter- 
ally compelled the governors of the Roman provinces to 
send to Rome for orders to deal with the Christians, and 
when the emperors in turn felt obliged to issue "rescripts" 
ordering their punishment. And from this, on to the 
times of the great apostasy of the church itself, when it 
in turn became a persecutor, and sent vast armies to put 
down Protestantism in its strongholds. This is indicated 
in verses 12, 13, 14, as follows : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 271 

"Upon my right hand rise the youth; they 
push away my feet, and they raise up against 
me the ways of their destruction. 

''They mar my path, they set forward my 
calamity, they have no helper. 

"They came upon me as a wide breaking in 
of waters : in the desolation they .rolled them- 
selves upon me." 

In these verses some of the later day critics, notably 
Clarke, and Cowles, have shrewdly suspected that "There 
may be an allusion here to a besieged city : the besiegers 
strive by every means and way to distress the besieged; 
stopping up the fountains, breaking up the road, raising 
up towers to project arrows and stones into the city, 
called here raising up against it the ways of destruc- 
tion . . ." And again, in allusion to verses 14, 15, 
"There still appears to be an allusion to a besieged city : 
the sap, the breach, the storm, the flight, the pursuit, and 
the slaughter." Here Dr. Clarke has all unconsciously 
given the true intent of the text, which is to represent that 
series of battles and sieges by which Protestant Chris- 
tianity was practically destroyed, so far as organization 
went. The onward rush of invading armies into Protest- 
ant territories is compared in verse 14 to "a wide breaking 
in of waters." And the way they overswept the land, leav- 
ing death and desolation in their wake, is described in 
the succeeding clause — "in the desolation they rolled 
themselves upon me." For the full historic correspond- 
ence to these words of prophecy, let the student look up 
the story of the sieges of Orleans, Orange, and other 
Protestant cities and towns in which hundreds of thou- 
sands of their citizens were slain ; then the great mystery 
of the raising up of fortifications, and of sending armies 
of men against the patriarch Job, who was a non-resistant 
and would not fight at all in defense of himself or of his 



272 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

possessions, is a mystery no more; it is of a greater than 
Job, or Jonah, or Solomon, that this is written, and of 
what he was to suffer from those who were to "raise up 
against him the ways of their destruction" in the latter 
days. For here those critics who have seen allusions to 
battles and sieges, and raised mounds and fortifications, 
in these passages of Job, have come dangerously near the 
truth ; and another step or two in the same direction 
would have been fatal to their whole system of misinter- 
pretation, which is so "learned," so "able," and so er- 
roneous. 

In verse 16 we read : 

"And now my soul is poured out upon me; 
the days of affliction have taken hold upon me." 

These are the days of which the Christ forewarned 
his people, saying to them that they should not weep for 
him, but for themselves and their children : 

"For, behold, the days are coming, in which 
they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the 
wombs that never bare, and the paps which 
never gave suck . . ." 

"For if they do these things in a green tree, 
what shall be done in the dry?" 

These things evidently enough refer to the greater 
afflictions which should befall the church, than any it 
had as yet experienced. And now we are come, in the 
words of the prophet, to the day of the dry tree, when 
men, women and children were to be slain by the hun- 
dreds of thousands for the faith of Christ. 

"My bones are pierced in me in the night 
season : and my sinews take no rest."— Verse 17. 

Here at first glance, the literalists appear to have a 
slight advantage; there is a person meant; the text speaks 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 273 

of his bones, and his sinews, they say, and. that person 
can be no other than the patriarch Job. The explanation 
of this is very simple and easy ; the church here in the 
depth of its affliction, is represented by a person under 
deep affliction himself; and a person is supposed to have 
bones and sinews, whether it be a real or an unreal per- 
son ; in the latter case there might be use for them in the 
manipulation of the figure. And it is so here. The bones 
and sinews of the subject represent the framework, with 
its moving forces, of the organic structure of that re- 
ligious body which is the real subject of the text. It was 
to be, and was, broken in pieces and scattered to the four 
winds .of heaven. The very bones, so to speak, of that 
body were pierced "in the night season" of its deep afflic- 
tion, and its active, moving forces, its "sinews," were al- 
lowed to "take no rest." This, and this only, is what is 
meant by Job's complaint that his bones are pierced in 
him in the night season, and that his sinews are in a con- 
tinual agitation. 

Verse 18: 

"By the great force of my disease is my gar- 
ment changed : it bindeth me about as the collar 
of my coat." 

This verse has been selected for comment, partly on 
account of its comparative difficulty. They tell us that 
"my garment" means my skin ; that their poor victim had 
a hide of "elephantine thickness" — made so by his dis- 
ease. And that it bound him about like the collar of a 
coat buttoned tight about the neck. If so, what an inval- 
uable bit of information, that it should have been 
deemed worthy of a place in the inspired Word of God! 
That Job's skin stuck to him like a tight buttoned coat 
collar, is the best and the most that these wise and 
learned triflers with this great master stroke of divine 
poesy have ever made of it. First of all, that a "dis- 



274 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

ease," a fatal disease, was predicated of the Christ, by 
his enemies, is shown in Psalms, 41 :8, where it is writ- 
ten : 

"An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast 
unto him : and now that he lieth he shall rise up 
no more." 

What is meant by the "evil disease" which they said 
cleaved fast unto him, is that he was possessed of a devil, 
and was incurably mad; and now that he was crucified, 
and laid away in the tomb, he should "rise up no more," 
as said by his prophet, the Psalmist. But what is said of 
his "disease," and its "great force" by this other prophet 
of the same, is predicated of the corrupted church, which 
although it was his, had truly become possessed by a 
devil, his enemy, Anti-Christ. And this is what is here 
called in the highly poetical language of the text, his dis- 
ease. There are also other instances than these two in 
scripture where moral evil is called a "disease;" see con- 
cordance. 

But what now is meant by this saying of Job : "By 
•the great force of my disease is my garment changed?" 
Here the stress of meaning lies in the word, "garment." 
The word, garment, is frequently used in scripture as 
symbolical and representative of things exterior to things 
interior and related to them, and clothing them with 
something which outwardly represents them. A perfect 
examiple of this is seen in Isaiah, 52:1, where under the 
heading of "Christ persuadeth the church to believe his 
free redemption," we read : "Awake, awake ; put on thy 
strength, O Zion ; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jeru- 
salem, the holy city." And again, by the same, it is said 
that one of the offices of Christ is to give "the garment 
of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Using the word in 
this sense, Christ clothed Zion in the flowing and "beau- 
tiful garments" of freedom, imposing upon his followers 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 275 

no hard and binding restrictions in the matter of their ex- 
ternal lives, saying that his yoke is easy, and his burden 
light, and at the same time exhorting them to the utmost 
freedom to think and to "judge of themselves the things 
that are right." But in due time, as the church grew rich 
and great and powerful, it contracted a deadly disease; a 
lust for dominion and power and glory, as an Institution, 
gained possession of its heads, and to this end, that free- 
dom wherewith Christ had clothed its members must be 
taken away, and a garmentation of obedience to the hard 
and fast dictates and decrees of the church must be put on 
and worn by all its subjects, or the extreme penalty suf- 
fered. This was to crush out all spiritual life and liberty 
from its members, and to reduce them to a state of ab- 
ject slavery to their masters, and to compel them to wear 
the badge of that slavery in all of their outward lives. 

And this is what is meant by these words of this old 
prophet of the Messiah, speaking by his mouthpiece, 
"Job," and making him to say, as of himself, 

"By the great force of my disease is my gar- 
ment changed : it bindeth me about as the collar 
of my coat." 

Changed indeed ! changed from the simple and easy 
vestment of primitive and apostolic Christianity, to the 
rigid ecclesiastical garmentation of Papacy, prescriptive 
of such rights as it saw fit to grant its subjects, and pro- 
scriptive of their God-given right to think and judge of 
themselves "the things that are right," and throttling 
all freedom of speech, like unto the collar of a coat tightly 
bound about the neck of its wearer ; for the Word of God 
does not expend itself upon things meaningless in them- 
selves, such as the thickening and hardening of the hide 
of a patriarch of a former age, as the critics would make 
us believe — if they could — but can not. Especially must 
this be so in the instance before us, where we are thor- 



276 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

oughly satisfied that the said patriarch never had any ex- 
istence, as such, nor any "disease" to change his skin, by 
its "great force," from the softness and smoothness of 
the skin of a man, to the hardness and roughness of the 
skin of an elephant. 

Verse 22: 

"Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou 
causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my 
substance." 

In the first line of this verse there is an allusion to 
the "great wind" which came "from the wilderness," and 
"smote the four corners of the house" in which the seven 
sons and the three daughters of Job were eating, and 
drinking wine, and "it fell upon the young men, and they 
were dead" — as we have seen in the first chapter of the 
book ; for we are now and here in that period of the his- 
toric development of the prophetic plan which corre- 
sponds to the same in that part of the prologue where 
that fatality is recorded. It will be remembered that it 
was said in that connection that the fall of the house, and 
the death of the seven sons, symbolize the destruction of 
the house and body organic of Protestant Christianity, 
under the assaults of the Papal-Roman hierarchy ; that 
"the wilderness" from which came the "great wind," is 
the Romish Church in its wilderness state of apostasy 
from the true faith of Christ; and that the great wind it- 
self, is a figure for the devastating and destroying power 
which emanated from the Papal-Roman throne, and fell 
upon the house organic of the Protestant body, and 
crushed it out of existence. .And now, "the wind," of the 
first line of this verse, is that same "great wind," of. the 
first chapter of the prologue of the drama. For now, we 
are in the midst of the particulars of that most terrible 
tragedy ever enacted upon the stage of the historic drama. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 277 

Then the last line of this verse, "and dissolvest my 
substance/' is also an allusion to that same "substance" 
of Job which we are told at the beginning, consisted of a 
named and enumerated series of flocks and herds of do- 
mestic animals. These, the reader has since been told, 
are representative of the several grades and departments 
of the Gospel Propaganda ; the 7,000 sheep are the flock of 
Christ in its entirety; the 3,000 camels, the foreign Mis- 
sionary Service ; the 500 yoke of oxen, the Pastors of the 
local churches, "yoke fellows in Christ ;" and the 500 she' 
asses, the gross burden bearers of the entire service. 
These are called the "substance" of Job, and are the Serv- 
itors of Christ. And now, "Thou . . . dissolvest my 
substance," signifies that consuming, or scattering, of the 
sheep of Christ, that carrying away of the camels, oxen 
and asses by the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, related in 
the prologue — there, without sentiment or emotion, but 
here the prophet makes his mouthpiece say, in the last 
verse of the chapter and in the one before it : 

"My skin is black upon me, and my bones 
are burned with heat. 

"My harp also is turned to mourning, and 
my organ into the voice of them that weep." 

It is the poet's own harp that is here turned to 
mourning, and his own organ into the voice of them that 
weep ; for here prophetically, he is in the midst of the now 
historic destruction of all that was left of the flock of 
Christ, out of the great apostasy of the "mother" church 
The great wind from the wilderness, which is Rome, is 
now blowing with all its force, and smiting the four cor- 
ners of the house of Protestant Christendom that it falls 
on "the young men, and they are dead," in dungeons and 
at the stake. And it is this that is here forecast in these 
words of the prophet : 



278 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"Thou liftest me up to the wind ; thou caus- 
est me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my sub- 
stance." 

One thing is particularly noticeable here; Job is 
made to see and own the hand of God in all this : "Thou" 
doest all of these things unto me. And it is in this con- 
sistent recognition of the hand of God in all that befalls 
him from first to last, that he most perfectly represents 
and stands for Him of whom he is but a chosen type and 
figure. 

Verse 24: 

"Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand 
to the grave, though they cry in his destruc- 
tion." 

It will be remembered that on the occasion of the 
second coming of Satan among the sons of God, "to pre- 
sent himself before the Lord" — this time to demand of the 
Lord a severer test of the integrity of Job than that of 
taking away his property, namely: that the Lord should 
put forth his hand now, "and touch his bone and his flesh" 
— the Lord said unto Satan, "Behold, he is in thine hand; 
but save his life." . Howbeit, however sorely he might 
suffer Job to be afflicted in his person, he would "not 
stretch out his hand to the grave." Satan might smite 
him down to the ground, but he must not kill him. This 
verse now before us is a poetic amplification of the same 
thought. And while it refers primarily to the Christ in 
his own person, for they cried in his destruction : "Crucify 
him ! crucify him !" yet would not he "Stretch out his 
hand to the grave," to hold and keep him there, still, in 
its present application it is to the crucified church. How- 
beit, however he might suffer it to be afflicted, he would 
not "stretch out his hand to the grave" though they cried 
in his destruction for its extinction. They might burn 
it at the stake, and hang it on the gibbet, but kill it, they 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 279 

could not. The decree of the Almighty had gone forth : 
But spare his life — both in his person, and in his life in 
his church there was to be a resurrection from apparent 
death; this, for the church, was at the Reformation. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Job's Life Reviewed and His Message Finished. 

(Job xxxi.) 

It will be impracticable within the limits of this 
treatise to make separate comment upon each and every 
verse of this chapter of forty verses. A verse here and 
there, taking care to preserve the continuity of the 
thought, must suffice for the present purpose, which is to 
show that it is, in this form and guise, a delineation of the 
spiritual life, character, and practical conduct of the 
Christ of God ; and only in type and figure, those of the 
patriarch of Uz. The careful student of this chapter, 
taking for his clue the Messianic idea and meaning of the 
work as a whole, will have no difficulty in tracing a clear 
and exact correspondence from verse to verse throughout, 
to the doctrines and precepts of Christ, as recorded in the 
four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Lyuke and John ; and this, 
without an exception of a verse. We will take for ex- 
ample the first and the ninth verse, which are of the same 
general character and meaning. 

Verse 1 : 

"I made a covenant with mine eyes ; why 
then should I think upon a maid?" 

Verse 9 : 

"If mine heart have been deceived by a. 
woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's 
door ;" 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 281 

Following both' these suppositious cases are impre- 
cations of punishment upon himself — if he has done 
either of these things. The correspondence to both of 
these verses, in the doctrine of Christ, is in Matthew, 
5 :28, where we read : 

"But I say unto you, That whosoever look- 
eth on a woman to lust after her hath committed 
adultery with her in his heart." 

Now Jesus was made a man with like passions with 
ourselves. "For verily he took not on him the nature of 
angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." And 
"in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his 
brethren." But he had made a covenant with his eyes. 
that they should not lead him into temptation. Why then 
should he think on a maid? For it is of him that this is 
written. And in him, all that men hold most dear in the 
domestic, social, and filial relations was transferred and 
lifted up into the higher and broader relations of universal 
humanity. With him, the sexual relation was abolished ; 
to him, there was neither male nor female. Why then, 
should he "think upon a maid?" And this is, in this form 
and manner, a forecast of his necessary renunciation of 
the sexual relation for the sake of the higher moral and 
spiritual relations of human kind, which he came to estab- 
lish, and to which he was specially and thoroughly conse- 
crated and devoted. Hence his "covenant with his eyes," 
that they should not lead him to think upon anything 
which might draw him down from his lofty ideal of his 
mission. 

From verse 16, to verse 21, is a specification of many 
and various beneficences to the poor and needy, which 
if he, Job, has failed to show to them, let his arm fall 
from his shoulder blade, and be broken from the bone, as 
he says in verse 22. And the reader can see for himself 
that these are precisely the things which Jesus most 



282 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

strongly inculcated in his teaching, and which he failed 
not to exemplify in his own life and conduct. And he 
wished to be judged by his works, just as Job is made to 
wish here. In verses 24, 25, he says : 

"If I have made gold my hope, or have said 
to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; 

"If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, 
and because my hand had gotten much;" 

This, under the figure of a great and wealthy prince 
who might have made gold his hope, but did not, and 
who might have rejoiced because his hand had gotten 
much, yet did not, but devoted it all to the cause of the 
poor and needy of his realm, is testimony of him who had 
the wealth of the worldrwithin the grasp of his hand, had 
he chosen to close his hand upon it, yet who made not 
gold his hope, nor the fine gold his confidence, but made 
himself poor for the sake of the poor, and taught that 
those who made gold their hope, or who "trust in riches," 
to use his own words, should hardly enter into the king- 
dom of heaven ; and who, instead of proudly exulting and 
rejoicing, and holding himself aloof from his inferiors, 
because he had gotten so much of the wealth of the 
knowledge and understanding of God, so much of the true 
riches, humbly and unselfishly consecrated it all to the 
ignorant, the uninformed, the spiritually poor and needy 
of the whole world. 

In verses 26, 27, 28, Job goes on to say : 

"If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the 
moon walking in brightness ; 

"And my heart hath been secretly enticed, 
or my mouth hath kissed my hand : 

"This also were an iniquity to be punished 
by the judge : for I should have denied the God 
that is above." 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 283 

At the advent of Christ — "the dayspring from on 
high" — the whole world was in a state of profound dark- 
ness, spiritually considered; the "chosen people" as a 
body had lost all knowledge of God, and its teachers and 
leaders had long since substituted for the commandments 
of God, the traditions of men. The Gentiles — the heathen 
nations around — were given to the adoration of the heav- 
enly bodies, so called ; the sun, the moon, and the stars. 
And now that he had come who was to give to these the 
knowledge of the true object of worship, it was especially 
necessary that he should strongly deprecate all forms 
of Nature-worship, from that of stocks and stones on 
the earth below, to that of suns and stars in the heavens 
above. This, he did ; he would not allow his believers in 
his divinity to worship even him — which they would have 
willingly done, with his connivance — saying, "Worship 
not me; worship God." And that "God is a Spirit; wor- 
ship him in spirit and in truth." 

He had "beheld the sun when it shined, and the moon 
walking in brightness," but his heart had not been "se- 
cretly enticed" to worship them, neither had his mouth 
kissed his hand when he looked up to them — in token of 
a servile adoration of their bigness and brightness — for 
in doing this, he "should have denied the God that is 
above." Instead of this, he led all his followers away from 
the gross idolatries of the day, and taught them the wor- 
ship of the one sole, invisible, yet Supreme Spirit, God. 
And this is testimony of him and of his teaching and 
example as to the true object of all worship, both then 
and now, and forever more. 

In verses 29 and 30 we read : 

"If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that 
hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found 
him: 

"Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin 
by wishing a curse to his soul." 



284 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

When Jesus came into the world, to save it from its 
sins and follies, it had long been a maxim of the world's 
philosophy that a man should love his friends, and hate 
his enemies. But he taught them a new and a contrary 
doctrine to this, saying to them : 

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou 
shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, 
bless them that curse you, do good to them that 
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully 
use you, and persecute you." 

And these things he himself did; he rejoiced not at 
the destruction of any that hated him ; neither did he 
suffer his mouth to sin by wishing a curse to their soul. 
And this is beforehand testimony of him, to that effect : 
for he also prayed for them that despitefully used him, 
and persecuted him, even unto death, saying with his last 
breath, 

"Father, forgive them ; for they know not 

what they do." 

Verse 31 reads: 

"If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh 
that we had of his flesh! we cannot* be satisfied." 

This is a very remarkable verse ; and it is almost a 
miracle that none of the literalists have assumed that it is 
what it appears to be, on the face of it — an expression of 
cannibalism on the part of Job's men, with the idea that 
they loved him so well that they could never be satisfied 
until they had eaten him up. But what they have as- 
sumed is not a whit less absurd than that would have 
been. It is this : that Job, with his skin black upon him, 
his bones "burned with heat," as he has said in the 
previous chapter, and writhing in extremest anguish on 
his ash heap, is now looking back upon his past life, with 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 285 

its many great and good deeds, and finds among them 
this to congratulate himself upon, namely : that he never 
sat down to a flesh diet while his hired men had only 
vegetables to eat. Or in the exact words of one of them, 
whose name, from motives of delicacy we forbear to men- 
tion, "They have never seen flesh come to my table, when 
they have been obliged to live on pulse." 

These things, in themselves not worthy of notice, are 
noticed to show what pitiful extremities the professionals 
are sometimes reduced to, in order to spare themselves 
the hated alternative of giving it up entirely. And if we 
go back to the Targum, or consult any number of the re- 
nowned scholars and critics who have commented upon 
this verse now before us, we shall find nothing that is any 
more adequate to the dignity of the theme, and the so- 
lemnity of the occasion, than that quoted above. For 
this chapter, in which the message of Job is finished, and 
in which he looks back upon his past life and imprecates 
the judgment of God upon himself, if he has committed 
any one of the sins, or failed in the performance of any 
of the righteous deeds and duties of a priest of the Most 
High, which are specified therein, is a vision in retrospect* 
of the whole life and public ministry of him of whom all 
this is testimony, the Christ. 

The historic correspondence to this great chapter of 
Messianic prophecy is now found in the 17th chapter of 
the Gospel according to St. John. In this chapter, Jesus, 
whose hour is now come, makes, in effect, the same gen- 
eral and special review of his past life and public min- 
istry as this of Job; and to the same end — that he is jus- 
tified. Let the student read this chapter carefully, and 
compare it with this 31st chapter of Job, noting at the 
same time the exact correspondence of the attending cir- 
cumstances, and he can hardly fail of .conviction that the 
one is prophecy, and the other, its fulfilling history. 

But now at last, to the text of the verse in question. 



286 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Job of Uz, being Jesus of Nazareth in prophetic type and 
figure, "the men of my tabernacle," can only be the Dis- 
ciples of Jesus. The word, tabernacle, as used in this 
connection, signifies, not "the tent of Job," as they tell us 
it does, but the body of Christ, his people. And "the men 
of my tabernacle" are the individual members of that 
body. And the occasion on which the men of his taber- 
nacle said : 

"For the bread of God is he which cometh 
down from heaven, and giveth life unto the 
world. 

"Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore 
give us this bread." 

Then, in further discourse upon the bread of 
heaven, he said to the Jews : 

"I am the living bread which came down 
from heaven : if any man eat of this bread, he 
shall live forever : and the bread that I will give 
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the 
world." 

And again he said : 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye 
eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his 
blood, ye have no life in you." 

And when they that heard him say he was the bread 
of God "which cometh down from heaven, and giveth 
life unto the world," cried out, "Lord, evermore give us 
this bread," then was fulfilled these words of the prophet 
of old : "Oh that we had of his flesh ! we cannot be satis- 
fied." For "this bread" was "his flesh," without which 
they could not "be satisfied." For here in this typical 
review of the past life and ministry of Job — this sancti- 
fier of his sons in the sight of the Lord — the prophet has 
gone back to the beginning of the public life and ministry 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 287 

of his real subject, the Christ of God. And so far are his 
words from referring to a self gratulation of the man of 
Uz upon the circumstance that his herdsmen had never 
seen flesh come to his table while they had "been obliged 
to live on pulse," they represent that calm and deep 
satisfaction of his soul which was felt and expressed by 
the Christ, at the close of his earthly career and ministry 
arising from the consciousness of having aroused in his 
hearers a divine hunger for the bread of heaven, which 
his prophet here, even as himself, has called "his flesh," 
and of which, and unto him, the men of his tabernacle 
said, "Lord, evermore give us this bread," for without it, 
"we cannot be satisfied." 

Verse 32 : 

"The stranger did not lodge in the street : 
but I opened my doors to the traveller." 

This verse calls for special comment for two rea- 
sons : first, for the exceeding great importance of its 
spiritual meaning, and then because of its simplicity and 
naturalness of appearance on the face of it, which are 
likely to lead the reader astray from its real and true 
purport, as it has led so many of its "critics" astray into 
the supposition that it is merely a boast of his hospitality 
on the part of the patriarch Job. When a stranger came 
by his tent, if he happened to see him, he rolled up the 
flaps of canvas which served for doors, and invited him in 
to stay over night, if it happened to be about bedtime 
when he came along. This, they tell us, is what this verse 
amounts to, and nothing more. Strange belittlement of 
the inspired Word! And how well did he say, ". 
they are they which testify of me." Here, "The stranger," 
is a compact figure in one person, of all those who are 
"strangers from the covenants of promise, having no 
hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ 



288 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Jesus ye who sometimes were far off — strangers — are 
made nigh by the blood of Christ." — Ephesians, 2:12, 13. 
Then the "doors," which Job is made to say he 
opened "to the traveller," are yet another close figure for 
the Door which Christ has opened to every traveller in 
the broad way which leads to destruction, that he may 
enter in by the straight gate, and walk in the narrow way 
that leads to life eternal. And that door is himself: 

"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, 
he shall be saved." 

And again, "to the angel of the church in Philadel- 
phia :" 

"I know thy works : behold, I have set before 
thee an open door, and no man can shut it." 

For further evidence of the Messianic meaning of this 
plain old verse of the scriptures that testify of Him, see 
the description of the last judgment, in Matthew 25th, 
where Jesus describes specifically and separately the 
deeds of righteousness which should judge their doers to 
be fit to enter into and inherit the kingdom prepared for 
them from the foundation of the world, as follows : 

"For I was an hungered, and ye gave me 
meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I 
was a stranger, and ye took me in," 

or in the words of his prophet here, "The stranger did not 
lodge in the street." And this was reckoned by him 
among the deeds worthy the benediction of Heaven upon 
those who did them, in his forecast of the final judgment. 
In fact, this whole chapter, under the figure of Job's judg- 
ment of himself, according as the deeds he had done in 
his past life had been good or evil, is itself a forecast of 
Christ's final judgment of mankind, according to the 
deeds done in the body. And in this verse its inspired 
author makes his "Job" reckon among his claims to jus- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 289 

tification at his final judgment, the claim that in his day 
"The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened 
my doors to the traveller." Just so, the Christ of whom 
this is testimony, reckons among the successful claim- 
ants of his approbation at the last day, those of whom he 
could say — among other good deeds they had done — ''I 
was a stranger, and ye took me in," adding only by way 
of explanation to those who should wonder when it was, 
that they saw him a stranger, and took him in, "Inas- 
much as ye have done it unto the least of one of these 
my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

Verse 33 : 

"If I covered my transgressions as Adam, 
by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom :" 

It has been explained before this, that Job's assump- 
tion of the role of the transgressor, is an enforced as- 
sumption by the author of the drama; and that his ap- 
pearance upon its stage in the double role of the saint, 
and the sinner, a thing which has greatly perplexed his 
critics, is for a doubly representative purpose ; that in his 
saintliness he represents the holiness of Christ; and in 
his assumed sinfulness, Christ's assumption of our sinful 
nature, and his suffering for our iniquities, and bearing 
of our infirmities — all as though they were his own. 
Therefore, they are made Job's own in the grand corre- 
spondence to the Assumption of Christ. It is consist- 
ently the same here as heretofore; only here there is 
special reference to Christ's doctrine as to the covering 
of transgressions, as Adam, and the hiding of iniquity in 
the bosom, as he hid his iniquity. And here there is al- 
lusion made to the two covenants, the old covenant and 
the new covenant. Under the old covenant God allowed 
his people to walk more or less in the ways of their heart, 
and after the sight of their eyes, because of their igno- 
rance. 



290 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

But now, when Christ came to be the Light of the 
world, God "commandeth all men everywhere to repent :" 
There is to be no more covering of transgressions "as 
Adam," or of hiding of iniquity in the bosom, but of un- 
covering them, confessing them, repenting of them, and 
forsaking them, and imploring pardon of them for Christ, 
the Beloved's sake. He taught and proclaimed the folly 
and the vanity of thinking to cover transgressions, or of 
seeking to hide iniquity, saying: 

"For there is nothing covered, that shall not 
be revealed ; neither hid, that shall not be known. 

"Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in 
darkness shall be heard in the light ; and that 
which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall 
be proclaimed upon the housetops." 

And now if the reader is able to make a necessary 
allowance for the dramatic form of composition, and for 
the necessity it imposed upon the writer to make his fig- 
ure speak as of himself, and of his own doctrine, while 
in reality he is speaking of another, and of the doctrine 
of that other, at the same time keeping it in mind that 
this is a part of those scriptures of which the Christ said 
that they testify of him, he will have no difficulty in 
recognizing this 33rd verse of the 31st chapter of Job as 
one of the most compact and powerful formulas of Mes- 
sianic prophecy to be found in any scripture. 

Verse 34: 

"Did I fear a great multitude or did the con- 
tempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, 
and went not out of the door?" 

The critics have had an unusual amount of diffi- 
culty with this verse ; and the critiques they have passed 
upon it are almost as various as they are numerous, not 
one of which contains an approximation to the truth. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 291 

Some of them think "The English version here is spe- 
cially infelicitous in many respects ;" and say "It is by no 
means clear how keeping silence and not going forth from 
his door because he was afraid of a great multitude, 
should be a sin." But whether this would be "a sin," 
or not so, would depend very greatly on the whole cir- 
cumstances of the case, and especially upon who the 
person was, and what his business was in the world. For 
an ordinary person, under ordinary circumstances, to 
"fear a great multitude" which he knew from some cause 
to be enraged against him, so that he should deem it 
prudent to stay indoors while it was passing by, would 
hardly be sufficient grounds on which to place a charge of 
sin against him. But suppose a very extraordinary per- 
son, and one charged by Almighty God with a divine 
mission to the world, the faithful discharge of which 
might require him to face a great multitude, to reprove 
it of sin, and to exhort it to repentance, then, for such 
an one as this, charged by the Almighty with such a 
mission as this, to "keep silence," and to "go not out of 
the door" for fear of what the great multitude might do 
to him in the way of injury, would be to expose himself 
to reprobation by the author of his divine commission, 
and to the scorn and contempt of all mankind. 

This, did not Jesus ; he shrank not even from the 
"great multitude, with swords and staves, from the chief 
priests and elders of the people," which came to take him 
to judgment and to his foreknown death. Neither had 
he "kept silence," terrified by "the contempt of fam- 
ilies" — the chief priests, scribes, Pharisees and elders of 
the people — who had heaped upon him their "contempt," 
both of him personally, and of his claim to the Messiah- 
ship, on every possible occasion. The aristocracies of 
every class despised him for his poverty, his illiteracy, a 
man who had "never learned letters," and for what they 
deemed his ignoble birth. But the contempt of these 



292 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"families" terrified him not, to cause him to "keep si- 
lence," but he went boldly "out of the door" into the 
highways, up to the hilltops, or wherever an audience 
could be gathered together, and proclaimed the gospel of 
the kingdom of heaven at hand, and the judgment of the 
Prince of this world. And this, in full view of the fact 
that the "contempt of the families" — the ruling classes 
of the Jews — was upon him, and that they were taking 
counsel together "how they might destroy him." For it 
is of him, like everything else in this book, that this is 
written. 

And it has been from ignorance of this all enlight- 
ening truth, that some of its critics have found our 
English version of this verse so "infelicitous in many 
respects" that they can extract no intelligible meaning 
from it as it reads. But to us, of today, to whom it has 
been given to know of whom it is written, it is a quite 
sufficiently felicitous version, just as it reads, for all 
practical purposes of interpretation and application as 
Messianic testimony. 

Verses 35, 36, 37 : 

"Oh that one would hear me! behold, my 
desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, 
and that mine adversary had written a book. 

"Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, 
and bind it as a crown to me. 

"I would declare unto him the number of 
my steps ; as a prince would I go near unto him." 

This is all now so clearly Messianic in its meaning 
as scarcely to require any comment whatever, in the 
way of explanation. For when or where was there in the 
history of the world, any save One, and he, the immacu- 
late Christ, who, at the close of his life in the world 
could be more than willing that the Almighty Judge of 
all the earth should make open answer to everything he 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 293 

had said, to every word he had spoken in the hearing of 
God or man? Or who else is there, or has there been, 
who when his earthly career was closed, could so ar- 
dently desire as this, that his bitterest enemy had writ- 
ten a book, and in that book had recorded everything he 
had known or heard of the doings of his subject, and who 
would go to that enemy and add what he might lack of 
full information as to all he had said or done, or "de- 
clare unto him the number of my steps," as he says here 
by his prophet? Who could take such a record as that, 
going with a princely step to his adversary to take hold 
of it and bear it upon his shoulder in triumph, and bind 
it as a crown of glory upon his head, to wear it there in 
the sight of Heaven and earth for all time, save him 
alone who, while he "bare the sin of many," was him- 
self without sin? 

Was it the patriarch Job ? No ; for though he is 
represented as "a perfect and an upright man, and one 
that feareth God, and escheweth evil," and this, in the 
words of the Lord himself, this is in testimony by type 
and figure, of that "perfect and upright man" of whom, 
when he came in real person, the Lord said, "This is 
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Even so, 
this now before us in these words of self vindication im- 
puted to Job, at the closing of his message to the world, 
is in further testimony of him who alone of all the world, 
could, and in substance and effect, did say these things 
of himself when his hour was come ; and now, behold, 
his desire was that the Almighty would answer him for 
all that he had said and done in his name in the world, 
even as Job is here represented to have desired for him- 
self. 

Verses 38, 39,40: 

"If my land cry against me, or that the fur- 
rows likewise thereof complain ; 



294 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"If I have eaten the fruits thereof with- 
out money, or have caused the owners thereof 
to lose their life : 

"Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and 
cockle instead of barley. The words of Job 
are ended." 

The entire figure of these three last verses of Job's 
parable is borrowed from that ancient system of agricul- 
ture, with its oppressive landlordism which was in vogue 
when this book was written, and is not yet quite obso- 
lete. It consists first, of a comparison of the great land- 
lord, with his host of tenants, laborers and servants, to 
the great Soul-L,ord, Christ, with his following, and serv- 
itors in every capacity ; then, of a contrast between the 
spirit and the method of the two lords — those of the 
landlord being hypothetically put as selfish and false. 
His aim is to get as much as possible out of his land, and 
its tillers and toilers, and to give back to them as little 
as possible of its fruits ; and this, by robbing them of 
the greater part of their just dues and rewards— in many 
instances causing "the owners thereof," or the producers 
thereof, "to lose their life." Not literally, perhaps, but 
practically to spend their lives for nought. In this way 
he becomes a thief, a robber, and practically a murderer 
of his tenants and laborers. And not only this, but under 
this false and pernicious plan of tillage, the land itself, 
over which he lords it, becomes impoverished, and in due 
process of time, worthless, so that here it is poetically 
described as itself crying out against him, and the fur- 
rows thereof, likewise to "complain," or "weep," as the 
learned tell us it is in the original Hebrew, and ulti- 
mately to produce, instead of wheat and barley, nothing 
better than thistles and cockle. 

And now Job says, if he has been such a landlord as 
that, let his land become so worse than worthless a land 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 295 

as this. In a word; let it be cursed for his sake. And 
in this hypothetical image of a blighted land, there is 
something strikingly analogous to that we find in the 
third chapter of Genesis, where we read that the Lord 
God said to Adam, after his fall, "cursed is the ground 
for thy sake. . . . Thorns also and thistles shall it 
bring forth to thee . . ." But Jesus said, "Moses 
wrote of me." And whether Moses, or some other great 
poet and prophet, wrote this book, as some of its critics 
think that he did, and as the similarity of style, and the 
identity of some of the phrases, as in the instance quoted 
above, suggest that he may have done, it is certain that 
he wrote of Him, and that here in this suppositious figure 
of the wicked landlord, and his blighted land, he has 
wrought a strong antithesis to the righteousness of the 
Lord of the land of souls, the Christ of God, and to the 
fruitfulness of his land. It cries not against him out of 
barrenness, neither do the furrows thereof complain. It 
is of an ever increasing fertility by the perpetual sprink- 
ling of his blood ; instead of cockle and thistle, it brings 
forth the best of barley, and the finest of wheat to be 
gathered into his garners, that his people may have 
abundance of bread. His tenants are all prosperous, and 
his laborers all worthy of their hire. He binds no "heavy 
burdens and grievous to be borne," to lay them on his 
"men's shoulders ;" his "yoke is easy" upon them, and his 
"burden, light." 'Tis only love and loyalty to him, that 
he asks in return for his unbounded beneficences to them. 
Neither has he "eaten the fruits thereof without 
money," or without cost ; it has cost him his life to pur- 
chase them for his people. Much less has he "caused 
the owners thereof to lose their life;" for he said, "I 
am come that they might have life, and that they might 
have it more abundantly." What a contrast is here 
wrought, impliedly, to the gripping lord of the land, 
who has come that he may have life with all its luxuries, 



296 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

and have them more abundantly in proportion as they 
are deprived of them all, to say nothing of its neces- 
saries. Moreover, the gift of our Lord of his land to his 
tenants, is abundance of beauty, as well as of bread. 
Where they dwell, there shines "the lily of the valleys," 
and there blooms "the rose of Sharon," and both in end- 
less profusion forever. For these are they of whom it 
is written by another poet and prophet of the same, 

"The wilderness and the solitary place 
shall be glad for them; and the desert shall re- 
joice, and blossom as the rose." 

Such, and so much as this is meant and implied in 
the Messianic prophet's picture of the grasping land- 
lord, with his blighted land crying against him, and the 
furrows thereof complaining, while his tenants' lives are 
lost in their ill-requited service to him, together with 
its implied antithesis of the righteous Lord of his realm, 
who is the Christ, and of whose just and beneficent 
sway and rule over his subjects all of this is testimony 
by contrast with their opposites, which, if not fully ex- 
pressed, is yet fairly implied. 

With the last line of this verse, and chapter, the 
scholiasts have had much difficulty. "It seems very 
much like an addition by a later hand." Its words are 
"detached from the text." "In the Hebrew text they 
are also detached : the hemistiches are complete with- 
out them ; nor indeed can they be incorporated with 
them." "They appear to me an addition of no author- 
ity." All of this, together with a great deal more of the 
same sort, comes from dwelling upon, and abiding in 
the "oldness of the letter" which "killeth," and not in 
that "newness of spirit" which "giveth life," and from 
ignorance of the Messianic purport and meaning of the 
chapter to which this last line furnishes a fitting and a 
most important conclusion, and without which, the en- 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 297 

tire plot of the chapter, together with the two preceding 
chapters, would have failed of its perfect consumma- 
tion at the last. This shall be explained : 

The plan of these three chapters, beginning with 
the 29th, and ending with this, the 31st, is to form a 
typical review, under the name and in the form of the 
past experiences of a holy patriarch called Job, of the 
whole public life and ministry of Jesus, the Christ, from 
its commencement to its close. And when it was closed, 
and he had finished the work which God had given him 
to do in the world, and he hung upon his cross in hi? 
dying hour, the last words which he uttered were:, *'It 
is finished." Then and there, the words of Jesus were 
ended. These last words of Jesus "stand detached from 
the text" of all his previous discourses ; "nor indeed can 
they be incorporated with them." Are they then "an 
addition by a later hand," and "an addition of no au- 
thority?" Nobody thinks so; yet, to think so, would 
be to think no farther from the truth than it is to think 
that because this last line of the verse before us stands 
entirely detached from the verse, in some of the manu- 
scripts, and is entirely "wanting in many of the MSS. 
of the Vulgate" — therefore the words themselves are of 
no weight and have no authority. 

They are not "an addition by a later hand," but 
were written by the same hand which wrote the book, 
which is all the work of one hand. And they have equal 
weight and authority with any other equal number of 
words in the entire piece of work ; for they are an .essen- 
tial part of the whole great Messianic parable which 
the whole discourse of Job is, from beginning to end; 
and this is the end, which cannot be left off or out with- 
out marring and spoiling its completeness of finish and 
perfection, as such a parable ; for it is the prophetic 
equivalent of, and clear correspondence to the last 
spoken words of Christ, from his cross : "It is finished." 



298 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

His words were ended. He spoke afterwards, but not to 
the world. "And now I am no more in the world, but 
these are in the world, and I come to thee," he said. 
And this, at last, is the real and true significance of these 
finishing words of the parable of Job : "The words of 
Job are ended." He indeed speaks afterward, but only 
to God. And so the correspondence is perfect and com- 
plete, from the first spoken words of this ancient parable 
of the Christ, and his kingdom to come, until, at last, 
its author's and composer's own words are ended. And, 
under God, they are all his own. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Elihu Takes the Stage. (Job xxxii.) 

And now that the three opponents of Job have been 
silenced, and his words also are ended, a new champion 
of their cause suddenly bounds into the arena of debate, 
and takes up the cudgel against him, and wields it more 
vigorously than any of them before him. He is a more 
able and eloquent speaker than either of his three pred- 
ecessors, and is full to bursting of a burning, fiery zeal 
for God, and the right, as he esteems it, and is thor- 
oughly honest in his purpose, and straightly upright in 
his intention, for he, like Paul, verily believes he is do- 
ing God service in persecuting his servant Job, who 
is that same Jesus whom Paul persecuted, and he, 
Elihu, is that same Paul, or Saul, who persecuted him — 
both in type and figure of Messianic prophecy. For any 
exhaustive forecast of the leading and most important 
events of Christian history, from the commencement 
to the close of the dispensation, such as is this work, 
which should have overlooked or omitted the giving of 
the gospel of Christ to the Gentile nations of the world, 
would have failed of an event second in importance 
only to the advent of the Christ himself — if indeed it 
were possible to distinguish between them as to their 
relative importance — and would have been as signal a 
failure as now it has been a success. 



300 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

And it is to the foreshadowing of this great event 
that the six chapters given up to EHhu and his discourse 
are devoted. But first of all, he must be made a perse- 
cutor of Job to begin with, in representation of him who 
made his first entree upon the stage of the drama of 
Christian history in the role of a persecutor of Jesus. 
And just as nothing is known of the history of Saul, 
previous to the commencement of his enactment of that 
role, he taking his first place on the page of history as a 
most virulent hater and opposer of Christ and of Chris- 
tianity, so here nothing is said of his representative, 
Elihu, as to his past experience, office or function in 
society or the world, although he is made to appear as 
a very extraordinary person, distinguished above his fel- 
lows for his superior ability, eloquence, energy and 
earnestness and burning zeal for the cause he espouses, 
and as well for the virulence of his spirit towards Job, 
who he honestly thinks is a hypocrite, and sincerely be- 
lieves that he is serving God, in his mad efforts to de- 
stroy him. Even so, thought and believed Saul of Tarsus 
all through his mad career as a would-be destroyer of 
Christ and his people from off the face of the earth. 

The Sanhedrim, or the supreme council of the 
Jews, did its best, or its worst, to destroy Jesus, and to 
suppress Christianity. Saul was a member of that au- 
gust body, which had made it a rule that none but 
elderly men should be elected to membership thereof; 
but, most likely on account of his superior talent, and 
his eminent piety, Sau 1 , a much younger man than any 
of them, was given a p ace and hearing in their councils. 
But he, in strict accord with his Jewish education, 
and with his own sense of propriety, always waited 
until his elders had spoken, before venturing his own 
opinion upon any subject pending before the assembled 
council. And at the time when Saul made his first con- 
spicuous appearance before the general public, the most 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 301 

perplexing and vexed question the Sanhedrim had to 
deal with, was what to do with the followers of Christ, 
who were daily growing more and more pestiferous and 
troublesome. 

Now Saul had been present and had heard all that 
they had to say on this momentous subject, and with 
his spirit of understanding that was in him, and with 
native sense of justice, he could not, and did not, fail to 
perceive how utterly they had failed to convict Jesus, 
or his followers, of any wrongdoing; yet, they con-, 
demned them. At this, his righteous indignation burned 
secretly within him, until at last, after they had all 
spoken, and their speech had dwindled away into silence 
and into nothingness, he arose and openly rebuked 
them in his kindled anger against them for their mani- 
fest unfairness in convicting a party against whom they 
could find no evidence, and for their failure to make any 
sufficient answer to the argument of the Christians. 

This we know, not from actual history of these par- 
ticulars, but from the prophecy of them in the text be- 
fore us ; for it sometimes occurs that where history is 
deficient in some particulars, prophecy supplies the de- 
ficiency ; it is so here ; and we know that Saul did and 
said some things which are not recorded of him in the 
history of his time, because we know that what is said 
here of the sayings and doings of "Elihu," are written 
of him. For these four men, EHphaz, Bildad, Zophar, 
and Elihu, are representative, in prophecy, of the Jew- 
ish Sanhedrim. And now note the close and exact cor- 
respondence. That high court of judicature sought by 
every means in its power to convict Jesus and his fol- 
lowers of wrongdoing, and utterly failed of their efforts 
to that end. Yet they condemned him and them. This 
aroused the indignation of the youngest member of that 
august body, Saul, who, while he deplored its failure to 
convict the accused Christians, sincerely believed that 



302 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

they deserved death, and with his characteristic energy 
resolved to take the matter into his own hands as far 
as practicable and to "work havoc" among them. And 
this he did, until he was miraculously converted, and 
experienced a sudden change of heart, was blind for 
three days, and from the restoration of his sight spent 
the remainder of his days preaching "Christ, and him 
crucified," and is known to this day as the Great Apostle 
to the Gentiles. 

But to come now directly to correspondence : Of 
these four men, who altogether represent the supreme 
council of the Jewish nation, Elihu is much the younger 
man. So was Saul a much younger man than any other 
member of the Sanhedrim. Three of these four men 
have just ceased from a long series of failing efforts to 
convict Job of unrighteousness of any kind or degree, 
having come short of any answer to his argument. And 
now the young man, Elihu, suddenly arises in wrath, 
both against Job, and against his three friends — against 
Job, because he believes him guilty of all that his three 
friends have charged him with, and against his three 
friends, "because they had found no answer, and yet 
had condemned Job." It was even so at the trial, the 
mock trial, of Jesus. After hearing all that the chief 
priests, the scribes and the Pharisees could bring against 
him, the one only fair-minded present, who was Pilate, 
could see nothing in it all that was worthy to be consid- 
ered as evidence against him and said, "I find no fault in 
this man." It was even so at the trials of the Christians 
before the Sanhedrim ; they could find nothing against 
them deserving condemnation, yet they condemned 
them. 

Saul had been present at their deliberations over 
these solemn and momentous questions — even as Elihu 
at those disgusted over the prejudged case of Job — 
and although disgusted and angered at the manifest 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 303 

unfairness of their proceedings, and their invariable 
findings of guilty,, as charged; and this, without any 
sufficient evidence of guilt to warrant conviction, 
respectfully and reverently asked permission of his se- 
niors, both in age and in office, to show his opinion as to 
how these pestilent Christians should be tried; for al- 
though he believed them guilty of blasphemy, and of 
treason against the state, he, being by nature a just man, 
wished them to have a fair trial before being condemned. 
All of this is clearly and exactly represented and 
foreshown in the course of action by the judges at this 
typical trial of a typical prisoner at the bar, who is called 
Job. They have tried him and condemned him, without 
any evidence against him. But there is one member of 
this typical Sanhedrim, and he the youngest of its mem- 
bers, who, although bitterly prejudiced against the pris- 
oner at the bar, so to speak, and believes him guilty as 
charged, still is an honest man, and perceiving that the 
trial so far, has been a travesty of justice, and is indig- 
nant thereat, respectfully demands of his seniors a hear- 
ing from himself, and an opportunity to try the case on 
its merits, as follows : 

"When Elihu saw that there was no an- 
swer in the mouth of these three men, then his 
wrath was kindled. 

"And Elihu, the son of Barachel the Bu- 
zite, answered and said, I am young, and ye 
are very old ; wherefore I was afraid, and durst 
not shew you my opinion. 

"I said, Days should speak, and multitude 
of years should teach wisdom. 

"But there is a spirit in man : and the in- 
spiration of the Almighty giveth them under- 
standing. 

"Therefore I said, Hearken to me ; I also 
will shew mine opinion. 



304 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

"Behold, I waited for your words; I gave 
ear to your reasons, whilst ye searched out 
what to say. 

"Yea, I attended unto you, and, behold, 
there was none of you that convinced Job, or 
that answered his words : 

"Lest ye should say, We have found out 
wisdom : God thrusteth him down, not man." 

All of this represents exactly the position and spirit 
of Saul, in and before the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem while 
in deliberation over the vexed question, What shall we 
do with these Christians ? He was young, and they were 
"very old." And for a time, he forebore to show them 
his opinion. But there was a spirit of understanding, 
and a sense of justice in him, which was not in them ; 
and this had been given him by "the inspiration of the 
Almighty." Therefore he said, in substance, "Hearken 
to me ; I also will shew mine opinion." He had waited 
for their words, and given ear to their reasons while they 
"searched out what to say." And, behold, there was 
none of them "that convinced Job, or that answered his 
words." For all of this applies to the Christ personally, 
as well as to his tried and persecuted followers ; and he 
had said to them that examined and tried him : "Which 
of you convinceth me of sin? And there was none of 
them that convinced him," or that answered his words. 

In the last verse quoted above, from the words of 
Elihu to his friends : 

"Lest ye should say, We have found out 
wisdom : God thrusteth him down, not man," 

he is made to speak with a wisdom far above and beyond 
his own ; and in the transcendence of the spirit over the 
letter, his own words apply to himself as well as to his 
friends ; for he and they alike are they, .or representatives 
of them, of whom the prophet Isaiah wrote : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 305 

"Make the heart of this people fat, and 
make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; 
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their 
ears, and understand with their heart, and con- 
vert, and be healed." 

Or, in the more compact phrase of this other and 
older prophet of the same, lest they should say, "We 
have found out wisdom ;" and so should have somewhat 
to glory in, it being forbidden of the Lord that any wise 
man should glory in his wisdom, but only in his knowl- 
edge and understanding of God. What Elihu says in 
these words, "God thrusteth him down, not man," is 
predicated of Christ, of whom it is written in Isaiah : 

""Surely he hath borne our griefs, and car- 
ried our sorrows : yet we did esteem him 
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." 

This is precisely what these three men have labored 
so long, and so hard to prove against Job — that he is 
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted — and this, for his 
manifold and great sins and transgressions, and have 
failed to establish their claim. For these three are, in 
figure, the same of whom the prophet Isaiah writes as 
quoted above ; and this Job is, in figure, the same Jesus 
of whom he writes in the same connection ; and this 
Elihu is, in figure, the same Saul who persecuted Christ 
more severely than any of his fellows, even as Elihu 
does Job, for a time. In the next verse he is made to say 
of Job : 

"Now he hath not directed his words 

against me : neither will I answer him with your 

speeches." 

It is fairly evident from the writings of Paul, that 
he had never personally encountered Jesus ; and that 
therefore, he had himself individually, escaped all of 



306 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

those scathing denunciations of their hypocrisy with 
which he so sorely smote the Pharisees as a body. More- 
over Gaul, even as a Pharisee, was no hypocrite; he was 
personally and individually sincere in his belief, and 
conscientious in his practice of his religion. Conse- 
quently, he could not take to himself, as directed against 
him, anything of all the severe things which he must 
have known that Jesus said of and to some of his fel- 
lows. And this is what is here preindicated in the say- 
ing of Elihu : "Now he hath not directed his words 
against me." Neither could the words of Jesus, as di- 
rected against hypocrisy, have any application to him 
personally. 

Next, Elihu says, speaking of his vanquished and 
silent friends, and through these, of the silencing -of 
those who, in his day, entered noisily into argument 

with Jesus : 

• 

"They were amazed, they answered nc 
more : they left off speaking." 

Now these three friends of Elihu, who, in type and 
figure, are so amazed that they answer Job no more, and 
leave off speaking, are specifically representative of those 
who could answer Jesus no more, as in the famous in- 
stance when he asked the Pharisees, of the Christ, that 
is, of himself, "whose son is he?" and they said, "The 
son of David." And he said to them, "How then doth 
David in spirit call him Lord?" "If David then call him 
Lord, how is he his son?" 

"And no man was able to answer him a 
word, neither durst any man from that day 
forth ask him any more questions." 

"They were amazed, they answered no more : they 
left off speaking," is simply and only testimony of him, 
and of the convincing and convicting power of his 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 307 

spoken word. And while this is written prophetically 
and specifically of those who met him in argument, it 
applies generally to the multitude, to all who heard him 
speak. He had just ended his sermon on the mount. 
"And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these say- 
ings, the people were astonished at his doctrine. For he 
taught them as one having- authority, and not as the 
scribes. "The scribes could do nothing without their 
books, and the teachings and traditions of the fathers, 
having no authority in themselves. Not so with Jesus ; 
he had authority in himself, directly from God. And to 
God, his appeal was for his authority to speak as he did. 
So we see that these "scribes," these men so well 
versed in the law, so wise and learned as they are, who 
have so long held out against Job, and are now van- 
quished and silenced, have based their whole argument 
on their books, and the traditions of their fathers, say- 
ing, as Eliphaz in verses 9 and 10, in chapter 15, 

. "What knowest thou, that we know not? 
what understandest thou, which is not in us? 

"With us are both the gray-headed and 
very aged men, much elder than thy father." 

And do we not know that this was the main, if not 
the sole reliance of the chief priests, scribes, and Phari- 
sees in their argument against Jesus? Did not they 
have with them gray-headed and very aged men, much 
older than his "father?" Did they not have Abraham 
to their father, and Moses and all the prophets for their 
teachers and guides? And now, what did he know that 
they knew not? or what could he understand, which was 
not with them? . . .. 

On the other side we have seen that Job's appeal is 
from man to God, throughout, even as was that of Jesus. 
In verse 4, of chapter 21, he says: "As for me, is my 
complaint to man?" In every respect the correspond- 



308 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

ence is perfect and complete. And now if this Job of Uz 
is Jesus of Nazareth— in type and figure, as he most as- 
suredly is, and if these three men who for so long and so 
cruelly have persecuted him, are, first of all, types and 
figures of those Jews who so cruelly persecuted Jesus, 
and last of all, of those like unto them in the "Mother 
Church," but exceeding them in cruelty, for that they 
persecuted him "as God/' and were not satisfied with 
his flesh, as Job says of them in a past chapter — as they 
certainly are, who or what then is this youngest member 
of this un-Christly crew, who so suddenly and unexpect- 
edly bounds into the amphitheater of torture, and who 
so far excels his companions in the vigor and the se- 
verity of his arraignment and treatment of their already 
much-mangled victim? 

Like Job, and his three false friends, Elihu never 
had existence as a real person ; and if Job is a wrought 
image of the Christ to come, and they ^ a composite fig- 
ure of his enemies and persecutors when he was come, 
there is no escape from the conclusion that this is a fig- 
ure of that one of them who was so distinguished from 
all his fellows, first, by the harshness and severity of 
his persecution of Christ and his people, and afterwards, 
by a corresponding zeal and energy of devotion to him 
and to his cause as to make it necessary in prophecy 
to give him a distinct and separate place in its pages, 
both for his distinction from his fellows as a persecutor 
of Christ, and afterwards, the same distinction above 
them, as a preacher of Christ, and him crucified. In a 
word, this Elihu is, in a double type and figure of Mes- 
sianic prophecy, first, Saul of Tarsus, and afterward, 
Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles. 

Here we see in him first, an image of Saul, the per- 
secutor; and at last, of Paul, the preacher, of Christ. 
For we shall find testimony of his conversion, and the 
moving of his heart out of its old sphere of hatred of 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 309 

Job, and scorn of his counsel, into a new and larger one 
of love to him, and that of a suppliant of his wisdom as 
a teacher, before we have finished with him. In fact, 
some of the scholars and critics of Job, have themselves 
seen in Elihu "a young man on whose mind a new light 
is breaking," without, however, comprehending in the 
least the true significance of their own discovery. And 
now there follows in the next four verses of Elihu's in- 
troductory speech, a bit of character portraiture, osten- 
sibly his own, but really that of St. Paul, and which the 
student, now that his attention is called to it, will easily 
recognize as a clear picture of some of the distinguishing 
traits of the character of. the great apostle, and which 
were manifest in him, both as a persecutor of Christ, 
and as a preacher of his gospel, namely: his always 
abounding zeal for any cause which he espoused, his 
fullness of the matter of whatever work he was engaged 
in, and the constraint of the spirit within him, and upon 
him, to open his lips and answer whatever call was unto 
him, and to speak, that he might be relieved of the pres- 
sure that was upon him. So Elihu opens his speech : 

"I said, I will answer also my part, I also 
will shew mine opinion. 

"For I am full of matter, the spirit within 
me constraineth me. 

"Behold my belly is as wine which hath 
no vent ; it is ready to burst like new bottles. 

"I will speak, that I may be refreshed : I 
will open my lips and answer." 

What clearer description than this could be given of 
the temperamental and constitutional peculiarities of the 
apostle, Paul? Was he not always ready to answer 
also his own part, and to show his own opinion on what- 
ever subject he chose, or was constrained, to take a part 
in? Was not his whole body as a cask of wine which 



310 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

has no vent, so that it was ready "to burst like new 
bottles?" Must he not needs speak that which he was 
so filled with, that he might "be refreshed," and could 
he refrain to open his lips and answer the call of the 
Spirit to his spirit? Does he not describe his necessity 
to give utterance to his thought and feeling in almost 
the same words as Elihu's in describing the necessity 
laid upon himself to do the same? Elihu says, "the 
spirit within me constraineth me," that is, to give it 
voice. Paul says, "The love of Christ constraineth us;" 
that is, to give it speech, to proclaim it: 

"For though I preach the gospel, I have 
nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon 
me ; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the 
gospel !" 

One of the ablest of the modern school of Bible 
critics, Dr. Clarke, when he comes in his commentary 
on Job, to these words of Elihu : "For I am full of mat- 
ter, the spirit within me constraineth me," is himself 
constrained to exclaim, "How similar to the words of St. 
Paul !" The love of Christ constraineth us. Yes, but 
not by accident, or by a mere coincidence, as Dr. Clarke 
evidently supposes, but by a part of the deep-laid design 
of the whole great work. And the part assigned to 
Elihu, and to his lengthy discourse, is designed to rep- 
resent the giving of the gospel to the Gentiles, after 
its rejection by the Jews. Then, first of all, it is to be 
noted that the whole of this first chapter of 22 verses, is 
dedicated to the introduction of the speaker, closing 
with a vivid portraiture of his personal and very peculiar 
temperament, and his most distinguishing traits of char- 
acter. This largeness of the space given to his intro- 
duction upon the stage of the drama, is to indicate the 
greatness of the speaker, and the importance of his part 
therein. Then at last, this careful portrayal of his per- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 311 

sonal traits and peculiarities of mind, temper and dis- 
position, especially the fullness of his mind with "mat- 
ter," and the constraining power of "the spirit within 
him," compelling him to speak as he speaks, appears to 
have been designed mainly or solely for the purpose of 
a final identification of the real person in Christian his- 
tory, of whom Elihu is a figure of Messianic prophecy, 
and which real person is the Apostle Paul. 

For any other purpose than this, to lead to the dis- 
covery in the fullness of time, of the real person of whom 
Elihu is but the shadow forecast, and to indicate the 
greatness of the man, and of his mission, this lengthy 
exordium, with its careful portrayal of the personal traits 
of character in the speaker, would be a quite uncalled 
for, and a wholly superfluous piece of work. But as it is, 
it sheds a clear light on the whole situation before us, or 
the part which Elihu speaks of the whole great parable 
of the kingdom to come, which the Book of Job is. Some 
"critics" have assumed that the introduction of Elihu 
and his discourse into the story is an interpolation by 
some "other hand," and that it has no necessary place 
or part therein, and that "the continuity of the narra- 
tive" could have been maintained as well without it, as 
with it. 

But in truth, it is as necessary a part of the pro- 
phetic program as the giving of the gospel to the heathen 
was to the continuity and spread of the kingdom of 
heaven "at hand" when John came ; for this is what it 
represents. And as John, the great forerunner of Christ, 
and foreteller of his ministry, exists on the page of Mes- 
sianic prophecy as "Elias," so Paul, the great successor 
to Christ, both in his person, and in his ministry, exists 
here on this kindred page of the same kind of prophecy, 
as "Elihu." * 

All of the other merely human members of the cast 
represent classes or aggregates; as the sons and daugh- 



312 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

ters of Job, the church, militant and spiritual; the wife 
of Job, the church in apostasy ; the three false friends of 
Job, three ruling classes of the Jews. Only Job, and 
Elihu, stand out in clear distinction from all the other 
dramatis personam of the play as representative of in- 
dividual lives and characters of Christian history — Job, 
of the life and character of Jesus ; and Elihu, of those 
of Paul. Elihu is here given this next greatest distinc- 
tion to Job himself, in pre-recognition of the now his- 
toric fact that he whom he represents was to be as he is 
now recognized to be, next after Jesus, the greatest, 
grandest actor of the drama of Christian history. 

And as Job is brought on the stage of the drama 
prophetic thereof, in the double role of saint and sinner, 
which seeming* discrepancy has been explained and 
shown to be no discrepancy, so Elihu comes on in the 
double role of, first, a persecutor of Job ; and last, of a 
pupil and a disciple of Job ; the first, in strict accord with 
the historic fact that Paul, as Saul, began his world- 
public career as a persecutor of Jesus, and ended it as 
the chiefest of his preachers and apostles ; with this fact, 
the second half of Elihu's double role is also in close 
accord, as we hope to be able to show in its time and 
place. 

In the last two verses of this chapter, Elihu clearly 
defines his position, as that of one who is no man-pleaser 
or flatterer, but who seeks to please God alone : 

"Let me not, I pray you, accept any men's 
person, neither let me give flattering titles unto 
man. 

"For I know not to give flattering titles; 
in so doing my maker would soon take me 
away." 

Let us now turn to Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, 
and see in the tenth verse of the first chapter, "how very 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 313 

like the words of St. Paul," are these words of Elihu, 
and how exactly his position on the matter of man- 
pleasing, versus God-pleasing, corresponds to that of 
Paul, on the same things : 

"For do I now persuade men, or God? or 
do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased 
men, I should not be the servant of Christ." 

For, in the words of his prototype, in so doing his maker 
would soon take him away, or remove him from the 
service of Christ. Then in Thessalonians, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 
we find a clear and full correspondence to the whole 
position of Elihu, as to pleasing men, and giving flatter- 
ing titles to them, as follows : 

"But as we were allowed of God to be put 
in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; 
not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our 
hearts. 

"For neither at any time used we flatter- 
ing words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covet- 
ousness ; God is witness." 

This strong, impregnable position of the Apostle 
Paul, never to seek to please men by accepting their 
persons, nor by giving them flattering titles, is here 
given that emphasis due to its importance, by his 
prophet putting in the mouth of his speaking figure the 
words : "Let me not, I pray you" — do any of these 
things. Lastly, in this connection, If this were a narra- 
tive of literal facts, simply an account of the circum- 
stance that somebody by the name of Elihu, held to the 
opinion that somebody by the name of Job, was not 
what he pretended to be — an honest and upright man, 
one that feared God, and eschewed evil, but on the con- 
trary, was in reality a pious and pretentious hypocrite, 
there could be no conceivable use for a genealogy of the 



314 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

speaker, such as is given in verse second of this chapter, 
and repeated in verse six, as though it were a matter of 
importance as a clue to the sense of his speech, which it 
is, when rightly understood. Verse 2 reads as follows : 

"Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu, the 
son of Ba-ra-chel the Bu-zite, of the kindred of 
Ram : against Job was his wrath kindled, be- 
cause he justified himself rather than God." 

None of the critics have given this careful geneal- 
ogy of Elihu anything like the attention its importance 
demands; for they have rightly judged that, from their 
point of view, it is a matter of relative unimportance 
whose son Elihu was, or of what tribe or kindred his 
father was. In fact, it is a matter of no conceivable use, 
value or interest to the reader, as a simple fact of record. 
On the other hand, as a representative genealogy, trans- 
latable into practically the same terms as those of him 
who is the real Elihu, and who is the Apostle Paul, a c 
given by himself, the genealogy of Elihu becomes a 
matter of deep interest as a means for the identification 
of the real person and character described. Paul sets 
forth his descent as ". . . of the stock of Israel, 
of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; 
as touching the law, a Phar-i-see." And again: "Are 
they the seed of Abraham? so am I." 

It has been shown while dealing with them, that the 
three men who have preceded Elihu in attacking Job, 
are Hebrews in that they represent the attitude of the 
Hebrews towards the Christ in his day. But now Elihu 
is "an Hebrew of the Hebrews;" he out-Hebrews them 
all in his onslaught "upon Job, just as* did Paul in his 
persecution of Jesus. He also is "of the stock of Israel," 
in the spiritual sense of the term ; for it is only in thV 
spiritual sense of all the terms that the genealogy of 
Elihu is given. And Israel, in the spiritual meaning of 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 315 

the word, is "a soldier of God." Elihu is a brave soldier 
of God ; he fights valiantly for God, as against Job ; his 
name itself signifies this: Elihu — " whose God is He?" 
Even so fought he valiantly for God, as against Jesus, 
he whom Elihu so faithfully represents. 

What is signified by "the son of Ba-ra-chel the Bu- 
zite, of the kindred of Ram," which Elihu is, can be 
rightly understood only by reference to the spiritual 
sense of these names. Ba-ra-chel is "whom God 
blessed." Bu-Zite is "descended from Buz;" and Buz 
signifies "contempt." Ram, of whose kindred Elihu is, 
signifies "high," and is traceable back through Aram, 
which is "height," to Abraham. Therefore the Chaldee 
wisely and correctly renders the text, instead "of the 
kindred of Ram," "of the kindred of Abraham." From 
this lofty height Paul claims descent ; and back up to it, 
in the typical and spiritual sense, the lineage of his pro- 
totype, Elihu, is clearly traceable. Even the. sovereign 
contempt of Saul, at first, for Christ and his "ignorant 
and fanatical following," is pre-indicated in the geneal- 
ogy of Elihu by making him, first of all, the son of a 
Buzite, which signifies a son of "contempt." Then, 
"Barachel," the immediate progenitor of Elihu, signify- 
ing as a name, "whom God blessed," is practically the 
same in meaning as "Benjamin," or "son of the fortu- 
nate." And as Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, so 
in the sense designed in the text, is Elihu. Thus, in 
every particular the two genealogies, the one, typical 
and prophetical, and the other, literal and historical, are 
seen to correspond, each to the other. 

An interesting* circumstance to be noted in this 
connection is that a goodly number of the learned have 
doubted if Elihu was a real person, bearing that name, 
and have sought to account for him in some other per- 
son, of some other name. Some have made him "Ba- 
laam, the son of Beor, the magician." Others think him 



316 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"'Ezra, the scribe." One other, "the Lord Jesus Christ." 
All of these are right in supposing him to be some other 
person than that he purports to be, on the face of the 
narrative, and all of them wrong in their conjectures as 
to whom he represents ; for this is he who says of him- 
self, in his epistle to the Galatians, that he was sep- 
arated and set apart from his mother's womb, and called 
of God to his great work of giving the gospel to the 
heathen. 

And if John, the great forerunner of Christ, was 
deemed a fit and worthy subject of Messianic prophecy, 
is it not reasonable to suppose that Paul, his great suc- 
cessor in the ministry of the gospel, should have been 
deemed an equally fit end worthy subject of the same, in 
his time and place? If so, this is his time and place 
therein, and this is he who is now and here called 
Elihu, or him "whose God is He." 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
Elihu Begins His Speech. (Job xxxiii.) 

It will be impracticable within the limits of this 
treatise to take up the five remaining chapters of the 
space allotted to this speaker, verse by verse, and com- 
ment upon them separately. As in the discourses of 
Job, so it must be here, a verse here, and a verse there, 
leaving the student of this scripture, who may elect to 
take up the general clue offered in the correspondence 
to the character, temperament, and peculiar traits of 
character, of the Apostle Paul, which we find in Elihu, 
together with the marked similarities of the style and 
method of discourse which we see exist between them, 
to fill up the gaps at his leisure. 

The first similarity of method which we note, is the 
use of a more or less lengthy preliminary to each di- 
vision of his discourse, on the part of both these speak- 
ers. The preliminary of the EHhuan argument, as a 
whole, consists of the entire first chapter; and this ap- 
plies, in proportion, to four out of the five remaining 
chapters. He must needs introduce himself and his 
subject anew after each natural pause in his discourse. 
This is notable in the epistles of Paul to the churches, 
and to individuals as well ; so that it might be said that 
without a preliminary introduction, spake he not unto 
them. 



318 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Here in the introduction to this chapter, the first 
four verses, we recognize the spirit and manner of Paul, 
and in some of them, his sentiments to a word. In verse 
2nd he says to Job : 

"Behold, now I have opened my mouth, 
my tongue hath spoken in my mouth. 

"My words shall be of the uprightness of 
my heart : and my lips shall utter /knowledge 
clearly." 

These would pass for words of Paul in any of his 
epistles, without any suspicion of their genuineness ; 
for their close likeness in sentiment and phraseology, 
see verses 19 and 20, Ephesians 6th : 

"And for me, that utterance may be given 
unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to 
make known the mystery of the gospel," etc. 

This was always Paul's great ambition — that his 
words should be of the uprightness of his heart, and that 
his lips should "utter knowledge clearly," as says his 
spokesman of him here ; for though the occasion was 
different, the sentiment is the same, and is thoroughly 
characteristic of his subject on all occasions. In verse 
6, "Klihu says to Job : 

"Behold, I am according to thy wish in 
God's stead : I also am formed out of the clay." 

In a word, Elihu is here, in his persecution of Job, 
made to represent himself as an ambassador for God, 
to speak for God, as against Job. This was just the 
claim of Saul in his persecution of Jesus — that he was 
in the service of God, an ambassador of the Almighty 
to wreak his vengeance upon a "blasphemer" of his 
name, and upon all who followed after him in his ways ; 
he was "in God's stead," as he thought, even as here he 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 319 

is represented to be, in the thought of his chosen figure 
and mouthpiece, Elihu. In verse 14 he says : 

"For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet 
man perceiveth it not." 

So says Paul, in Hebrews : 

''God, who at sundry- times and in divers 
manners spake in time past unto the fathers 
by the prophets, 

"Hath in these last days spoken unto us 
by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all 
things by whom also he made the worlds ;" 

What is meant by "yet men perceiveth it not," is 
explained by reference to Paul's further saying on the 
speaking of God, "once, yea, twice," in Hebrews 4th, 
2nd, as follows : 

"For unto us was the gospel preached, as 
well as unto them : but the word preached did 
not profit them, not being mixed with faith in 
them that heard it." 

In verses 27, 28, Elihu, still speaking for God with 
all his accustomed zeal, 

"He looketh upon men, and if any say, I 
have sinned, and perceived that which was 
right, and- it profited me not ; 

"He will deliver his soul from going into 
the pit, and his life shall see the light." 

For this, see Romans 6:21, 22: 

"What fruit had ye then in those things 
whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of 
those things is death. 

"But now being made free from sin, and 
become servants to God, ye have your fruit 
unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Elihu Continues His Speech. (Job xxxiv.) 

In this chapter, Elihu expends much eloquence in 
behalf of God, and in berating Job for charging God 
with injustice, as it seems to him. It is simply the old 
Jewish idea of the Christ, especially from the Pharisaic 
point of view, that we have here ; for Elihu is "a Phari- 
see of the Pharisees," such as Paul described himself to 
have been. He begins with an appeal to the wise, to 
men of knoAvledge and understanding, such as Paul pre- 
ferred to speak to and with, when opportunity came: 
such as, the -Stoics and the Epicureans whom he encoun- 
tered at such a center of intellectual light and knowl- 
edge as Athens, where "Greek met Greek," when Paul 
came among them. Verses 2 to 6 : 

"Hear my words, O ye wise men; and give 
ear unto me, ye that have knowledge. 

"For the ear trieth words, as the* mouth 
tasteth meat. 

"Let us choose to us judgment : let us 
know among ourselves what is good. 

"For Job hath said, I am righteous : and 
God hath taken away my judgment. 

"Should I lie against my right? my wound 
is incurable without transgression." 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 321 

All of this is thoroughly Pauline in spirit and feel- 
ing; for although in those times his audiences were 
mainly composed of ignorant and illiterate people, still, 
like every intellectual and cultivated person, he greatly 
preferred to speak to an intellectual and cultivated audi- 
ence. But now to the argument : Jesus had said, in 
his own words and way, that he was "righteous/' Of 
what he said to the Pharisees, it is written : 

"And he said unto them, Ye are from be- 
neath ; I am from above : ye are of this world ; 
I am not of this world." 

And again: "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" 
In brief, he had said, in substance, "I am righteous: and 
God hath taken away my judgment," even as Elihu 
scornfully reprimands Job for having, in a past chapter, 
said these things ; for the Jews, whom Elihu represents, 
chose to interpret these sayings of Jesus as charging 
God with injustice. As for what is meant by, "should 
I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without 
transgression," it is this : The Jews had said of the 
Lord, that he was their God ; but he said to them : 

"Yet ye have not known him; but I know 
him : and if I should say, I know him not, I 
shall be a liar like unto you; but I know him, 
and keep his saying." 

Should he lie against his right to say he knew God, 
and say he knew him not, and so become a liar like unto 
them? This is what is spoken of here, under the figure 
of the speaking of Elihu. He also said, in his own 
words and way, "My wound is incurable without trans- 
gression." This means that he knew his doom was ines- 
capable ; and that, without any transgression on his part. 
His own words were : "And truly the Son of man goeth 
as it was determined." "Him, being delivered by the 



322 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," as was 
said of him by this same "Elihu," after he became the 
Apostle Paul. But in the days when he was Saul, the 
persecutor, neither he nor any of his kind could see any- 
thing but blasphemy, in the idea of an innocent and up- 
right man suffering such a fate by the "determinate 
counsel and foreknowledge of God ;" and he excelled 
them all in heaping reproach upon Christ, his cause, and 
his people, even as here in prophecy of the same, he ex- 
cels their representatives, his three friends, in his re- 
proaches of Job for saying, in figure, the same things 
which Jesus said in fact. 

In verses 7, 8, 9, Elihu says : 

"What man is like Job, who drinketh up 
scorning like water? 

"Which goeth in company with the workers 
of iniquity, and walketh with wicked men. 

"For he hath said, It profiteth a man noth- 
ing that he should delight himself with God." 

Here plainly speaks the Pharisee, or the speaking 
figure of the Pharisee of the time of Christ, which Elihu, 
now more clearly than ever before, is. What is meant 
by the charge of Elihu against Job, that he goes in com- 
pany with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked 
men, is quickly seen and easily understood by reference 
to the gospel accounts of the charges of the Pharisees 
against 'Jesus, that he ate, and publicly companied with 
publicans and sinners. In Euke 15, 1st and 2nd, read: 

"Then drew near unto him all the publicans 
and sinners for to hear him. 

"And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, 
saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth 
with them." 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 323 

This companying and eating with publicans and sin- 
ners, together with allowing his disciples to eat with 
unwashed hands, to pluck ears of corn on the Sabbath 
day, while he himself healed the sick on the same day, 
led them to look upon him as a scorner of the traditions 
and usages of their fathers, which they cherished more 
reverently, and kept more faithfully than they did the 
commandments of God, as he said to them that they did. 
What man then, was like this Jesus, who drank up scorn- 
ing like water, to use the words of his prophet, scorning 
of them, and of their most sacredly kept usages and tra- 
ditions as substitutes for the commandments of God? For 
this, and this only, is what is signified by these words 
of this Pharisaic figure of Messianic prophecy : "What 
man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water?" 

As for the accusation of EHhu against Job, "For 
he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should 
delight himself with God," it is in reference to what Job 
said in verse 22 of chapter 9 : "This is one thing, there- 
fore I said, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked." 
But in truth, this is the prophet's way of anticipating 
the teaching of Christ : That for his sake, in the provi- 
dence of God, many of the righteous should be de- 
stroyed, as well as the wicked. Of this, he forewarned 
his people, saying of what should befall them : 

"And the brother shall deliver up the 
brother to death, and the father the child : and 
the children shall rise up against their parents, 
and cause them to be put to death." 

But so far was he from saying that "It profiteth a 
man nothing that he should delight himself with God," 
or this in substance, he said exactly the reverse of this, 
in view of the persecutions even unto death which many 
of his followers should suffer, or that it should profit 
them much ; saying to them : 



324 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for great 
is your reward in heaven : for so persecuted 
they the prophets which were before you." 

This perversion then, of the real and true meaning 
of what Job had said, on the part of Elihu, is simply 
representative of that perversion of the sayings of 
Jesus, on the part of his enemies, the Jews, with which 
they treated all of his doctrine. For this Elihu, with 
all of the good and true things which he has said of God, 
when it comes to his charges against Job, is yet, and so 
far, like unto his three friends, a forger of lies, and a 
physician of no value, as indeed it well becomes him and 
them to be such, since both he and they are designed 
representatives of those false doctors of divinity who in 
their day forged the truths of Christ over into false- 
hoods to suit their purpose to condemn him. 

The remainder of this chapter is of the same gen- 
eral character as the preceding parts which we have 
briefly scanned, it consisting of perversions of the past 
sayings of Job, and misapplications of their meaning, as 
indeed it is expressly designed to do, in order that the 
speaker may continue faithfully to represent those who 
perverted the speech of the Christ in his day, and mis- 
applied its meaning, as that of a blasphemer and a mad- 
man. 

It, is, however, interspersed with numerous sound 
reflections upon the moral government of God, and the 
duty of man, such as in verse 12, where we read : 

"Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, 
neither will the Almighty pervert judgment." 

And such as we find in verses 31, and 32, on the 
proper attitude of man : 

"Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I 
have borne chastisement, I will not offend any 
more: 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 325 

"That which I see not teach thou me : if I 
have done iniquity, I will do no more." 

This is surely good and sound doctrine, both as to 
the divine government, and as to the rightness of re- 
pentance of iniquity. But the mischief and the error 
of it all is in the mistaken application of it to Job, who, 
while he had "borne chastisement," had not "done in- 
iquity" of any kind or degree ; for this, in figure, is he 
of whom it is written by another prophet of the same, 
". . . the chastisement of our peace was upon him; 
and with his stripes we are healed." The same says of 
him, ". . . yet we did esteem him stricken, smit- 
ten of God, and afflicted." "We" are the Jews; and 
now how faithfully and clearly this Elihu represents 
them in their mistaken view of the meaning and purpose 
of the afflictions of the Christ, is seen in the erring view 
he takes of the afflictions of Job. He esteems him 
stricken and smitten of God for his iniquity. And these 
two verses of his speech which are quoted above, are 
an indirect appeal to him to say unto God, "I have borne 
chastisement, I will not offend any more; if I have done 
iniquity, I will do no more." 

What better evidence than this do we need that this 
Elihu of the speaking cast of the Jobic drama is not a 
real, historic person, but a representative character; 
and then, as to whom and what, he is made to repre- 
sent? Surely we could ask for no better evidence than 
this. In verses 35 to 37, inclusive, and the last of the 
chapter, he goes on to say: 

"Job hath spoken without knowledge, and 
his words were without wisdom. 

"My desire is that Job may be tried unto 
the end because of his answers for wicked men. 

"For he addeth rebellion unto his sin, he 
clappeth his hands among us, and multiplieth 
his words against God." 



326 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

How exactly the Elihuan concept of the speech of 
Job — that it is a mere multiplication of words empty of 
knowledge, and void of wisdom — corresponds to that of 
the Jews as to the words of Jesus, will be seen at a look 
by anyone willing to see what is put plain before his 
eyes. And well indeed it should do so ; for this is pre- 
cisely the thing it is designed and wrought to represent. 
When at last the words of Jesus were ended, like the 
words of Job, and they had heard all he had said, he 
having ever taught openly in the synagogue, and in the 
temple whither the Jews always resorted, and in secret 
had he said nothing, to them, Jesus had "spoken with- 
out knowledge, and his words were without wisdom." 
He had spoken to them of this aforetime : 

"Why do ye not understand my speech? 
even because ye can not hear my word:" 
After this, from their prophet : 

"He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened 
their heart ; that they should not see with their 
eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be 
converted, and I should heal them." 

And now if there be any reader of this, who cannot 
see and understand that this blindness of eyes and ob- 
tuseness of understanding to the wisdom of Job, on the 
acted part of Elihu in this old Messianic drama, is a 
wrought correspondence to the same, on the part of the 
Jews, as to the wisdom of Jesus, the Messiah, when he 
came to his own, and they received him not, spoke to 
them, and they heard him not, as the voiced wisdom of 
God, then we say that such an one must needs be blind 
of eyes and hard of heart, not to see and feel the truth 
when it-is placed so easily within the grasp of his under- 
standing, and so near to his heart as this. 

In Elihu's expressed desire that Job may be tried 
to the end, "because of his answers for wicked men," 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 327 

there is an outcropping of the personality of the per- 
secutor Saul, who, being "exceedingly mad against 
them" — the Christians — as he himself says after his con- 
version, desired to have them tried to the end; and that 
end was death ; for this was the end which they richly 
deserved, in his view. As to what is meant by Job's 
"answers for wicked men," which Elihu accuses him 
of making, it refers firstly to what Job has said in chap- 
ter 21, of the frequently great prosperity of ,the wicked, 
such as : "Their seed is established in their sight with 
them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their 
houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon 
them," with other things indicative of their temporal 
prosperity, 

This was something strongly abhorrent to the 
Jewish mind; to them, worldly prosperity was a sure 
sign and token of righteousness in those who enjoyed 
it, while adversity was an equally certain evidence of 
wickedness of those who suffered it. And this is one of 
the many signs and tokens by which we know that these 
four men who have been fighting Job from the begin- 
ning, are Jews; or that they represent in their attitude 
towards Job, the Jewish mind and spirit in their thought 
and feeling towards Jesus. The whole burden of their 
argument against Job is : he is in adversity ; therefore, 
he is, and must have been, a wicked man. Jesus was 
always in adversity ; he never had where to lay his head ; 
this was against him. Moreover, he went "in company 
with the workers of iniquity, and walked — and talked — 
with wicked men ; for he came "not to call the right- 
eous, but sinners to repentance." Worst of all, he told 
the self-righteous Jews, proud of their piety, that the 
most notoriously wicked were better than they; that 
even the publicans and harlots went into the kingdom 
of God before them. And these things. are, in the last 
analysis, what is signified by Elihu's charge against Job, 



328 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

that he made "answers for wicked men." For this scrip- 
ture testifies of Him, either directly or indirectly, at 
every point in every part. 

Last of all, that Job u addeth rebellion unto his sin," 
that "he clappeth his hands among us, and multiplieth 
his words against God," is, in the language of the 
prophet, the thought and feeling of the chief priests and 
elders of the people concerning Jesus. He was a rebel 
against the law of Moses, they thought. He did not 
remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as they 
thought of holiness. He worked, and allowed his dis- 
ciples to work, on the day they deemed sacred to rest. 
And, being a Jew, this was rebellion against the su- 
preme authority of the Jews. He "clappeth his hands 
among us," is the author's formula for a sign of de- 
rision — that derision with which he treated their out- 
ward appearances and pretensions of righteousness, 
while within, they were "full of hypocrisy and iniquity," 
as he told them they were. Among them, Saul was con- 
spicuous for the earnestness and sincerity of his belief 
that Jesus was an enemy to all truth and righteous- 
ness; and therefore, that the sum of his speech was. a 
multiplication of "his words against God," as says his 
prophet by his mouthpiece and figure, which is called 
Elihu, of one who was destined to become the chief of 
the apostles for the spreading of the gospel among the 
heathen. 



CHAPTER XL. 
Elihu Continues His Parable, (Job xxxv.) 

Rather, the author continues his parable by the 
mouth of his figure, making" him speak as though he 
were a real person, as so often did the Christ with his 
person-figures. This chapter, of sixteen verses, con- 
sists mainly of a sermon on the incomparable greatness 
of God, contrasting with it the littleness and insignifi- 
cance of man in the sight of God, whether he is a sinner 
or a righteous man. It cannot harm God if he is a sin- 
ner, nor help him if he is a saint. The wickedness of a 
man may hurt, like himself, or his righteousness may 
profit the son of man; but it is nothing to God, whether 
a man is righteous, or whether he is wicked. By reason 
of the oppressions of the mighty, the oppressed cry out, 
but get no answer, because of pride of evil men, he 
says. 

The last three verses of the chapter consist of an 
application of all this, to Job: 

"Although thou sayest thou shaft not see 
him, yet judgment is before him; therefore 
trust thou in him." 
Job had said, in verses 8, 9, of chapter 23 : 

"Behold, I go forward, but he is not there ; 
and backward, but I cannot perceive him; 



330 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"On the left hand, where he doth work, 
but I cannot behold him : he hideth himself on 
the right hand, that I cannot see him :" 

This was but the prophet's way of teaching the doc- 
trine of Christ: that "God is a Spirit . . ."an in- 
visible Spirit, who works invisibly to man. And this 
bringing it by Elihu, as a charge of evil,, against Job, is 
but another illustration of that perversion of all the 
teaching of Jesus which those whom Elihu represents, 
constantly practiced. Next, Elihu says : 

"But now, because it is not so, he hath vis- 
ited in his anger ; yet he knoweth it not in great 
extremity." 

Because Job has not trusted in God, he has visited 
him in anger against him ; yet, in his great extremity of 
suffering, he does not know this. In a word, Elihu es- 
teems Job to have been "stricken, smitten of God, and 
afflicted," because of his transgressions; "he hath vis- 
ited in anger," he says. In this, he simply and only 
represents those of whom another prophet of the same 
things, Isaiah, wrote that they should so esteem the 
Christ, in his "great extremity." Lastly, he says : 

"Therefore doth Job open his mouth in 
vain ; he multiplieth words without knowl- 
edge." 

Even so they esteemed the speech of Christ — that 
he had opened his mouth in vain, and had only multi- 
plied words without knowledge. The correspondence is 
perfect, lacking nothing of completeness in any par- 
ticular. 



CHAPTER XLI. 
Elihu Proceeds. (Job xxxvi.) 

And in verses 2, 3, 4, says : 

"Suffer me a little, and I will shew thee 
that I have yet to speak on God's behalf. 

"I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and 
will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. 

"For truly my words shall not be false : 
he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee." 

This great zeal of Elihu's, to speak yet farther "on 
God's behalf," itself bespeaks the Jews whom he repre- 
sents. This same Saul whom he specifically stands for, 
afterwards said of his fellow Israelites : "For I bear 
them record that they have a zeal of God, but not ac- 
cording to knowledge." Then, that Elihu sets out to 
fetch his knowledge of God "from afar," is still further 
confirmation of the Jewish character of his theology. In 
the day of Christ the Jews had no near knowledge of 
God, none in themselves, but always went back to 
Moses, or some others of the ancients, and fetched their 
knowledge of God, such as they had, "from afar." So 
it is, that the fact that EHhu's knowledge of God must 
needs be far fetched before he can ascribe righteousness 
to his Maker, betrays his origin; he is a Jew, in figure, 
and "a Pharisee of the Pharisees," at that. 



332 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Then, his saying of himself, to Job : "He that is 
perfect in knowledge is with thee," answers briefly, but 
completely to Paul's description, after his conversion, 
of his completed. education in the theology of the Jews: 

"And profited in the Jew's religion above 
many of my equals in mine own nation, being 
more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of 
my fathers." 

In a word, he was "perfect in knowledge" — such 
knowledge of God as could be derived from the tradi- 
tions of the fathers. And now if we follow Elihu's ser- 
mon carefully through, from the 5th to the 15th verse of 
this chapter, we shall see that it is wholly made up of 
the traditions of the fathers of the Jewish church. Take 
for instance, verse 11 : 

"If they obey and serve him, they shall 
spend their days in prosperity, and their years 
in pleasures." 

Always prosperity, worldly prosperity, and pleas- 
ures, temporal pleasures, Jewish theology meted out to 
the righteous as their just and certain reward; and al- 
ways adversity, worldly adversity, to the wicked, as 
their equally certain and just reward — exactly the op- 
posite to Christian theology, which says : 

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous : 
but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." 
—Psalm, 34:19. 

Yet Jewish theology occasionally anticipates the 
Christian, and admits that God may, and sometimes 
does restore to the penitent sinner that prosperity which 
he has forfeited by transgression of the law. Accord- 
ingly, Elihu sermonizes Job, his assumed sinner, on this 
point : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 333 

"He delivereth the poor in his affliction, 
and openeth their ears in oppression. 

"Even so would he have removed thee out 
of the strait into a broad place, where there is 
no straitness ; and that which should be set on 
thy table should be full of fatness. 

"But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of 
the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on 
thee.". 

Even so, the Pharisees sought to convert Jesus 
from the assumed error of his ways, to the rightness of 
theirs by appeals to scripture. So also did the chief 
priests, scribes and Pharisees of the Christian church, 
in its apostasy, substitute themselves for Christ. And 
this was the general judgment of them all — that in the 
great and terrible afflictions which befell both him and 
his followers, justice and judgment had taken hold on 
him and them. This is what is represented by the judg- 
ment of Elihu upon Job, he assuming that God's best 
beloved, and most perfect and upright man in all the 
earth, is the chiefest of sinners, and therefore, the chief- 
est of sufferers. Here again, the correspondence is per- 
fect and complete. 

In verse 21, Elihu says: 

"Take heed, regard not iniquity ; for this 
hast thou chosen rather than affliction." 

Of this, Paul discourses in Hebrews, of Moses 
"Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of 
God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." 
But from this point onward to the end, we hear no more 
of fault-finding with Job, from Elihu ; a change comes 
over the spirit of his dream, and a new light from 
heaven suddenly dawns upon him ; it is the conversion 
of Saul, the persecutor of Christ, to Paul, his chosen 



334 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

apostle to the Gentiles. Henceforward his doctrine is 
Pauline in spirit, and is easily traceable to the letter of 
his epistles. In verse 26 he says : 

"Behold, God is great, and we know him 
not, neither can the number of his years be 
searched out." 

The impossibility of the natural man knowing any- 
thing of God, either of his nature, or of the number of 
his years, was a favorite theme with Paul. On his visit 
to Athens he saw on an altar, an inscription, "To the 
unknown God." And hoping to teach the superstitious 
Athenians something of God, he said to them, "Whom 
therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." 
In the next verse Elihu says : 

"For he maketh small the drops of water : 
they pour down rain according to the vapour 
thereof :" 

It would be a serious error on the part of the stu- 
dent of scripture to suppose this to be a mere allusion 
to such natural phenomena as the rising of vapor from 
the earth to the sky, and falling back again in the form 
of rain ; and this, for no other purpose than to include 
this in a general reckoning of God's beneficent provi- 
dences in Nature. For this is a perfect, and a very beau- 
tiful figure of God's spiritual providence unto the prayer- 
ful heart of man. The "rain" ultimately meant, is the 
descent from heaven of spiritual refreshing in answer 
to prayer ; while making "small the drops of water," 
signifies adaptation to the needs and receptive capacity 
of the small creature man, to whom God could send 
down floods of refreshing rain from on high, if man 
could receive and contain them ; but as he cannot re- 
ceive so much at once, "he maketh small the drops of 
water" in a wise adaptation of his bounty to the needs 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 335 

and capacities of his creatures. But "they pour down 
rain according to the vapour thereof." Here the word 
"vapor" signifies that which goes up in the spiritual 
aspiration of prayer; and the answer, the coming down, 
is according to the petition, the going up. Moreover, 
the doctrine of the passage is Messianic ; this being the 
great Messianic prophet's way, a very beautiful way, of 
foreshadowing the doctrine of Christ concerning prayer, 
and its answers. He taught that the coming down of 
power to man from heaven is in proportion to that which 
goes up to heaven in petition ; if it is filled with faith, 
the answer will be filled with power, saying : 

"Therefore I say unto you, What things 
soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye 
receive them, and ye shall have them." 

And again: ". . . all things are possible to 
him that believeth." Even so, the spiritual heavens pour 
down rain according to that which goes up unto them, 
and which is here compared to the pouring down of rain 
from the natural heavens according to the vapor rising 
up to them. And wherever in this work there is found 
any allusion to natural phenomena of any kind, its use 
in that place is as a correspondence to spiritual phe- 
nomena of some kind. With this known, we shall be 
so much the better prepared to make out the meaning 
of what next follows in the speech of EHhu, who is now 
preaching the doctrine of him whom he began with per- 
secuting. Continuing, he says of the rain : 

"Which the clouds do drop and distil upon 
man abundantly. 

"Also can any understand the spreadings 
of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle? 

"Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, 
and covereth the bottom of the sea. 



330 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"For by them judgeth he the people; he 
giveth meat in abundance." 

> 

All of this is great poetry, and profound philoso- 
phy ; the poetry is the poetry of Nature, and the phil- 
osophy is the philosophy of Messianism. The first 
clause of this last verse: "For by them judgeth he the 
people ;" that is, by "the spreadings of the clouds," and 
"the noise of his tabernacle," and by the spreading of 
"his light upon it," and by the covering with his light 
"the bottom of the sea," shows us at a glance that we 
must look through and beyond Nature for the final 
meaning of all this; for we know that God does not 
judge the people by the spreadings of natural clouds 
around in and upon the natural sky, nor by the sound 
of thunder in the natural heavens, nor by covering the 
bottom of the natural sea with natural light. We all 
know that none of these things has anything to do with 
God's judgment of man for the deeds done in the body; 
what then is the final meaning of all these surface al- 
lusions to such natural things as are indicated in the 
text? 

To begin with the "clouds," this word, as used in 
this connection, signifies the darkness of the letter of 
the Word of God, as given by Moses and the prophets, 
and by the later poets and prophets of the Word. Their 
poetic similes, images, and figures, and forecastings of 
things to come, were so many dark clouds to the unen- 
lightened minds of the people. So were the poems and 
parables of the Christ, to those whose eyes of the mind 
were blinded that they could not see their meaning. 
This brings us to "the spreadings of the clouds," or the 
dispersion of the darkness of the letter of the Word, 
whicfr began to be accomplished when he came to be 
the light of the Word, and of the World ; for this- is what 
is signified by the spreadings of the clouds, in the text 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 337 

before us. Then, by "the noise of his tabernacle," is 
signified the sound of the voice of the preached Word 
of God by those of the church spiritual. Of both these, 
"the spreading^ of the clouds, and the noise of his taber- 
nacle," it is asked, "Also can any understand them?" 
This is another form of practically the same question 
asked by another prophet, Isaiah : "Who hath believed 
our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord re- 
vealed?" It is answered in Daniel, 12:10, "None of the 
wicked shall understand ; but the wise shall under- 
stand." "Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and 
covereth the bottom of the sea," is predicated of the 
Christ who should spread his light upon his tabernacle, 
and cover with it the bottom of the sea, which is the 
soul of man. Previous to his coming, religion had been 
more or less a thing of the surface ; the light of heaven 
had not gone down into the depths of the soul of the 
world. But now, the bottom of that sea was at last to 
be covered with light. The text is strikingly analogous 
to the saying of John, as to the deep and radical work 
of the Christ : 

"And now also the axe is laid unto the root 
of the trees : every tree therefore which bring- 
eth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and 
cast into the fire." 

The two figures, the one, of covering the "roots of 
the sea" with light, as it may be rendered, and the other, 
of laying the axe to the root of the trees, are but dif- 
ferent renderings of the same idea — that of the thor- 
oughness of the work of Christ in the world. For the 
meaning of the first clause of verse 31 : "For by them 
judgeth he the people;" we may look to the words of 
the Christ himself. It is by the "spreadings of the 
clouds," "the noise of his tabernacle," and the covering 
of "the bottom of the sea" with light, that it is said here 



33S THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

that he "judgeth the people." And these things signify 
his presence in the world, as the Light thereof, and the 
preaching of his Word. Of this, he said : "And if any 
man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: 
. . . the word that I have spoken, the same shall 
judge him in the last day." These things are what is 
signified by: "For by them judgeth he the people." 

By the last clause of this verse: "he giveth meat 
in abundance," is meant first what the Psalmist says 
of God giving manna in great abundance to the Israel- 
ites to eat in the wilderness : "Man did eat angel's 
food : he sent them meat to the full." And last, it is 
of the One who said : "For my flesh is meat indeed, 
and my blood is drink indeed ;" and that "he that eateth 
me, even he shall, live by me ;" also that he was come 
that they might have this life, and have it "more abun- 
dantly," that this is written : "he giveth meat in abun- 
dance." 

Verse 32 : 

"With clouds he covereth the light ; and 
commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that 
cometh betwixt." 

To suppose that this is merely an allusion to the 
covering of the light of the sun, the natural sun, with 
clouds, natural clouds, which come between it and the 
earth, would be to miss the spiritual sense of the pass- 
age in its entirety. It is the covering of the light of 
the sun of the spiritual heavens by whatever "cloud 
that cometh betwixt" it and the soul of man that is 
meant here. Alternate hidings and revealings of the 
sunlight of God's favor has been the experience of all 
nations, and of every individual since the world began, 
and doubtless will be more or less so to the end. Many 
prophets have dealt with this phenomenon, each in his 
own way. "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 339 

O God of Israel, the Savior," says the Prophet Isaiah. 
And again, with reference now to the taking away of 
the covering of darkness at the coming of Christ: — 
the great mountain that is to fill the whole earth : 

"And he will destroy in this mountain the 
face of the covering- cast over all people, and 
the vail that is spread over all nations." 

Then the Psalmist, for an occasion of great dark- 
ness and affliction of the people of God, exclaims: 

"Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and for- 
gettest our affliction and our oppression?" 

It is notable that all of the prophets recognize the 
phenomenon of spiritual darkness as of divine ordering, 
our prophet with all the others, he saying, "With 
clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not 
to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt." 

Verse 33 : 

"The noise thereof sheweth concerning it, 
the cattle also concerning the vapour." 

This, the last verse of the chapter, has for long 
been the despair of the critics ; especially, "the cattle 
also concerning the vapour." Some of them omit all 
comment on this clause, while others say they can see 
no authority for the use of the word, vapour, in this 
connection. This is because they have not seen the 
use, nor apprehended the meaning of the word in its 
first connection above ; this apprehended, there is the 
same authority for its use here as there ; for its mean- 
ing is the same, although its use and application are 
different. Confessedly however, it is, on the face of 
it, one of the most obscure and difficult passages of the 
whole book ; and it is only by reference to history that 
it can be made clear as to its whole meaning. It is with 



340 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

regard to the covering of the light with clouds, and 
commanding it not to shine by means of am interven- 
ing cloud, that it is said here that '"The noise thereof 
sheweth concerning it ;" and is not history well supplied 
with examples illustrative of this? "Greece, Assyria, 
Carthage, Rome, where are they?" When God, in his 
providence, covered with clouds the light of their great 
prosperity, and they went down in darkness to ever- 
lasting oblivion, great was the noise throughout the 
world concerning it, so great that the echoes thereof 
have not died away to this day. 

Then Babylon; when prophetically, that great city 
came under the cloud that eclipsed her by divine com- 
mand, an angel flew in the midst of heaven, crying 
with a ioud voice : "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that 
great city, because she made all nations drink of the 
wine of the wrath of her fornication." And the noise 
thereof showed concerning it. Also Jesus himself fore- 
told the great eclipse to come upon all the nations and 
tribes of the earth after his people have suffered the 
limit of their tribulations : 

"But in those days, after that tribulation, 
the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall 
not give her light." 

And the noise thereof shall show concerning it, 
when "all the tribes of the earth" shall mourn because 
of it, "and he shall send his angels with a great sound 
of a trumpet" to celebrate the occasion of gathering 
his elect out of the darkness of the world into the light 
of heaven. What now remains to be shown is the 
meaning of, "the cattle also concerning the vapour." 
During these last six verses of this chapter the prophet 
has been dealing with spiritual phenomena, specifically 
those of the Messianic age, by means of correspond- 
ences derived from natural phenomena. Here he comes 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 341 

to the animal kingdom for his correspondence, calling 
it altogether, "cattle." All members of the animal 
creation are natural barometers ; instinctively they 
show concerning atmospheric conditions, and their 
changes, what they will be. When the birds sing with 
cheerfulness at sunset, they show to the shrewd ob- 
server concerning* the morrow, that it will be a fair 
day. Storms are foreshown by the actions of both do- 
mestic and wild animals. And when the storm is over 
and past, the cattle on a thousand hills sniff the rising 
vapor under the returning sun, and show in various 
ways concerning it, whether it will be of short or long 
duration. 

In short, the unsophisticated children of Nature, 
pure and simple, are wiser in their sphere than are 
their superiors in theirs, just as "the children of this 
world are wiser in their generation than the children of 
light." The author has recognized this in a previous 
chapter, the 12th, where he makes Job reprove Zophar 
for his lack of wisdom, saying to him : 

"But ask now the beasts, and they shall 
teach thee ; and the fowls of the air, and they 
shall tell thee." 

And here he asks now the beasts, "the cattle," to 
teach us "concerning the vapour," or the heavenward 
aspiration of the heart of man. In Ezekiel, 34:31, we 
are told the Lord said: 

"And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, 
are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord 
God." 

So here, these "cattle" of the text are the cattle of 
Christ's pasture, and are men, and the Christ is their 
Lord. The figure is taken from this part of the animal 
kingdom in order to represent the common people, the 



342 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

poor, plain, common people. It was to these that the 
gospel was preached. "And the common people heard 
him gladly," as it is written in Mark, 12:37. Every 
student of scripture knows how frequently men are 
called after the names of animals, as illustrations of 
character, office or capacity. The Christ himself is 
called a lamb, and a lion : "The Lamb that was slain 
from the foundation of the world." "The Lion of the 
tribe of Juda." "Of the assembly of the wicked," which 
inclosed the Christ at his crucifixion, some are called 
bulls, "strong bulls of Bashan," and others are called 
Dogs : "For dogs have compassed me :" It is needless 
to multiply examples ; from the worm that crawls on 
the ground, to the eagle that soars in the sky, "Nature 
offers all her creatures to him — the poet — as a picture- 
language "in which to describe - and rate the various 
characters, grades and conditions of mankind, in scrip- 
ture symbology. Here, the commons are rated as 
"cattle" — not in any derisive sense, but in truth from 
the very superiority of their spiritual intuitions over 
those of the nobles; for just as the beasts of the field, 
and the birds of the air are superior in natural instinct 
to their superiors, men, so the common people are 
superior in spiritual intuition to their superiors in intel- 
lect. And this is the basic idea of the figure of "the 
cattle also concerning the vapour," or that which goeth 
up. In this way the teaching of Jesus, the Christ, is 
anticipated, that the Father hath hid these things from 
the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes — 
the little ones of the people. 

Also this same Paul, whose discourse is also antici- 
pated here, afterwards wrote to the church at Corinth: 

"For ye see your calling, brethren, how 
that not many wise men after the flesh, not 
many mighty, not many noble, are called : 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 34; 

"But God hath chosen the foolish things 
of the world to confound the wise ; and God 
hath chosen the weak things of the world to 
confound the things which are mighty;" 



CHAPTER XLII. 

Elihu Concludes His Discourse. (Job xxxvii.) 

The burden of this nobly eloquent chapter is the 
greatness of God, as shown in his works, and the un- 
searchableness of his wisdom in them all. These are 
favorite themes of the apostle Paul, in his epistles and 
discourses ; and the substance of all that Elihu says 
upon them may be found in them. And now the first 
notable thing is that Elihu has nothing further to say 
against Job ; on the contrary, he looks reverently up 
to him now, and asks him to instruct him in what he 
shall say unto God. What a change from the one who 
began with charges and accusations of crimes and ini- 
quities against the holy patriarch, and who now ends 
as a suppliant of his wisdom, acknowledging his own 
ignorance and darkness, as compared with the light 
and knowledge of his accredited superior. This is, in 
Messianic prophecy, the conversion of Saul, the per- 
secutor, to Paul, the preacher, of Christ. And 
this was an event deemed to be of so great import to 
the future of Christianity as to call for a miracle for 
its accomplishment — the coming again of Jesus in per- 
son to expostulate with him, and to teach him what 
henceforth he should say unto God. 



THE NEW BOOK OF 30^ 345 

Verse first of this chapter expressly intimates this ; 
in it Elihu says : 

"At this also my heart trembleth, and is 
moved out of his place.". 

That is to say, out of his old place or sphere of hatred 
to Christ, into a new sphere of love and devotion to 
him and his cause. In verse 2, he says: 

"Hear attentively the noise of his voice, 
and the sound that goeth out of his mouth." 

Herein is preindicated that exceeding earnestness 
of exhortation to "hear attentively" the spoken word of 
the ministers of Christ, which was a strong feature of 
the preaching' of Paul. An almost literally exact cor- 
respondence to this exhortation of the text is in the 
first verse of the second chapter of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews : 

"Therefore we ought to give the more ear- 
nest heed to the things which we have heard, 
lest at any time we should let them slip." 

Verse 3 : 

"He directeth it under the whole heaven, 
and his lightning unto the ends of the earth." 

This is said with reference to "the noise of his 
voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth," of 
the verse above. These, the critics tell us, are thunder 
and lightning ; but it is of the preaching and spread of 
the gospel that this is so written. For the strictly 
Messianic meaning of this, see Matthew 24th, 14th, 
where Jesus says : 

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be 
preached in all the world for a witness unto all 
nations ; and then shall the end come." 



346 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

For what "Elihu" has further to say of it, after 
he comes on the stage of the drama of to-day, as Paul, 
see Romans 10:17, 18, where he has this to say: 

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hear- 
ing by the word of God. > 

"But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, 
verily, their sound went into all the earth, and 
their words unto the ends of the world." 

Verse 4: 

"After it a voice roareth : he thundereth 
with the voice of his excellency ; and he will 
not stay them when his voice is heard." 

The word "lightning," in the verse above, signifies 
not natural, but spiritual lightning, or light ; therefore 
the voice that roareth after it in this verse, is not nat- 
ural, but spiritual thunder, or a loud voice from the 
spiritual heavens, the voice of the Lord. In Jeremiah 
25 :30, we read : "The Lord shall roar from on high, 
and utter his voice from his holy habitation." In Ho- 
sea 11:10: "he shall roar like a lion." In Joel 3:16: 
"The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his 
voice from Jerusalem." The significance of "he thun- 
dereth with the voice of his excellency," is the same 
here as in the above quoted passages. And as to what 
is meant by : "and he will not stay them when his 
voice is heard," see Hebrews 6 :4, 5, 6, where Paul sets 
forth clearly what the Spirit signifies by these words 
of Elihu, as follows : 

"For it is impossible for those who were 
once enlightened, and have tasted of the heav- 
enly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy 
Ghost, 

"And have tasted the good word of God, 
and the powers of the world to come, 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 347 

"If they shall fall away, to renew them 
again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to 
themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him 
to an open shame." 

All of this is what is so compactly and tersely 
stated in the text : "and he will not stay them when 
his voice is heard." In verses 5, 6, he says : 

"God thundereth marvellously with his 
voice ; great things doeth he, which we cannot 
comprehend. 

"For he sayeth to the snow, Be thou on the 
earth ; likewise to the small rain, and to the 
great rain of his strength." 

Like the allusions to rain, vapor, clouds, and light- 
ning, which we have seen above, this, to the thunder, 
has no reference to that phenomenon of Nature, save 
only as a correspondence to the power of the voice of 
God. Concerning this, the apostle says in Hebrews 
4:12: 

"For the word of God is quick and power- 
ful ..." 

For quickness, like the lightning; and for power, 
like the sphere-jarring thunder, to shake down the 
strongholds of iniquity. Again, in 1st Thessalonians, 
5th, he says : 

"For our gospel came not unto you in 
word only, but also in power, and in the Holy 
Ghost." 

And again he says : 

"For the kingdom of God is not in word, 
but in power." ) 

The word "thundereth," as used in the text, and 
applied to the voice of God, signifies great manifesta- 



348 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

tions of his power in the destruction of error, and the 
upbuilding of truth in its place, notably and specifically 
here, in the judgment of the prince of this world, and 
of his works, and in the setting up of the kingdom of 
God at the coming of the Christ, who when he was 
come, himself employed the figure of the thunder in his 
surnaming of James and John, "Boanerges, which is, 
The sons of thunder." And to suppose that these allu- 
sions to natural phenomena have any other significance 
than as correspondences to, or representations of, spir- 
itual phenomena, is to wholly miss their purpose and 
meaning, and to reduce this part of the Word of God 
down to the level of a treatise on meteorology, as the 
critics have done, with a moral invented by themselves, 
and pasted on. 

"For he sayeth to the snow, Be thou on the earth," 
signifies those seasons of spiritual cold which come with 
season-like regularity into and upon the lives of men 
and nations while they dwell on the earth ; for the nat- 
ural seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, 
move around the natural sphere in a large correspond- 
ence to the steadily recurring changes of the spiritual 
state of mankind. This fact the great poet and prophet 
has here seized upon and used symbolically of the spir- 
itual phenomena of the Messianic age, with its seasons 
of alternate light and darkness, heat and cold. And a 
greater poet and prophet than he, the Christ himself, 
while it was yet Spring in the first year of that age, and 
while the lovely blossoms of Faith, Hope, and Charity 
were but beginning to spring up around him in that new 
Eden, and while he was yet with them as "the rose of 
Sharon, and the lily of the valleys," foretold the coming 
on of a winter when "because iniquity shall abound, the 
love of many shall wax cold." 

In many other scriptures the figure of the snow 
and ice, and of the rain and dew in and on the earth, 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 349 

as of spiritual congelation on the one hand, and of the 
descent of the refreshing Spirit, on the other, is a famil- 
iar one. In Psalm 147:16, 17, 18, we read: 

"He giveth snow like wool : he scattereth 
the hoar frost like ashes. 

"He casteth forth his ice like morsels : who 
can stand before his cold? 

"He sendeth out his word, and melteth 
them : he causeth his wind to blow, and the 
waters flow." 

Here the text itself shows plainly that the snow 
and ice and the waters are melted by the word of God, 
and are not natural snow and ice, except as used in 
figures of things spiritual; and that these waters are 
caused to flow by the blowing of the "wind" of the 
Spirit. It is the same "snow" here where "he saith to 
the snow, Be thou on the earth;" signifying, as it does, 
a season or seasons of spiritual cold. Then as to "the 
small rain, and to the great rain of his strength," the 
one is figurative of the daily average descent of spir- 
itual refreshing from on high to the soul of mankind, 
and the other, of extraordinary manifestations of the 
presence and power of the Spirit. Perhaps the most 
notable occasion of this kind in Christian history was 
that of the day of Pentecost. The disciples of Christ, 
numbering at that time about one hundred and twenty, 
were all together in one place, after a season of united 
prayer : 

"And suddenly there came a sound from 
heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it 
filled all the house where they were sit- 
ting . ." 

"And they were all filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, 
as the Spirit gave them utterance." 



350 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

And there were, in the great multitude there, "de- 
vout men, out of every nation under heaven," and they 
were amazed and confounded because "that every man 
heard them speak in his own language." This from the 
second chapter of Acts, by that same Apostle who here 
figures in Messianic prophecy as "Elihu," was an occa- 
sion of the coming down from heaven of "the great 
rain of his strength." But greater than any special 
occasion of such manifestation of the power of the Spirit, 
is the sudden and surprising rise and spread of whole 
Christianity ; and it is of this, that the text before us 
speaks prophetically. Another prophet of the descent 
of the Messiah, the Psalmist, in Psalm 72 :6, compares 
it to the coming down of rain, as follows : 

"He shall come down like rain upon the 
mown grass : as showers that water the 
earth." 

And still another, Isaiah, 45 :8, in a larger figure 
of the same, says : 

"Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and 
let the skies pour down righteousness : let the 
earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, 
and let righteousness spring up together ; I the 
Lord have created it." 

It is so, and to this end, that he saith to "the small 
rain, and to the great rain of his strength :" "Be thou 
on the earth" — that the earth may open, and bring forth 
righteousness and salvation together ; for to this end, 
the Lord has created it. In verses 7, and 8, Elihu, who 
is now preaching the gospel of him he formerly con- 
temned, says : 

"He sealeth up the hand of every man; 
that all men mav know his work. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 351 

"Then the beasts go into dens, and remain 
in their places." 

These things, say the wise and prudent, from whom 
these things are hidden, refer probably to freezing 
weather in Winter, when working people have, as it 
were, their hands sealed up until Spring comes and 
thaws them out again, and lets them go to work once 
more. And this, in plain view of the fact that very 
many working people live where there is no winter to 
seal up the hand of labor, and in equally plain view of 
the text, which says : He sealeth up the hand of every 
man ; that all men may know his work. Then, as to the 
beasts going into dens, and remaining in their places, 
this, they tell us, refers to the sleeping in holes in the 
ground, of certain hibernating animals all through the 
cold weather ; but of what significance these things are, 
in and of themselves, they tell us nothing. 

In other scripture there are several historic illustra- 
tions of the meaning of the sealing up of the hands of 
men, that all men may know his work, as tersely stated 
here. In Deuteronomy 8th, we read that when the 
Lord, their God, was about to bring his people out of 
the wilderness into a goodly land, where they were to 
be greatly prospered, he warned them to beware of 
thinking that it was by their own hand that they had 
gotten what he had given them : 

"And thou say in thine heart, My power 
and the might of mine hand hath gotten me 
this wealth. 

"But thou shalt remember the Lord thy 
God : for it is he that giveth thee power to get 
wealth . . ." 

Thus he sealed up their hand, that they might 
know his work, within the meaning of these words of 



352 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the text. Next we come to Judges 7th, where we read 
that Gideon was about to give battle to the Midianites, 
having under his command an army of 32,000 men : 

"And the Lord said unto Gideon, The peo- 
ple that are with thee are too many for me to 
give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel 
vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own 
hand hath saved me." 

Then by two various tests the Lord reduced the 
army of Gideon from 32,000 down to 300 men, and sent 
him with only these few against the great host of the 
Midianites and the /Vmalekites, which was "grasshop- 
pers for multitude," and vanquished them all with this 
mere squad of soldiers, lest Israel should fail to see the 
hand of God in it, and proudly say : "Mine own hand 
hath saved me." It is quite immaterial to the present 
issue whether this is actual history, or a divine alle- 
gory ; it illustrates equally well in either case, the prac- 
tical meaning of the words of our text so far as it ap- 
plies to conquest of any kind, the sealing up of the 
hand of man, that he may not open it to grasp victory 
in his own name, or by his own might, to the end "that 
all men may know his work." 

The special application , however, of these words of 
this much maligned text is to the Messiah ; it is dis- 
covered in Psalm 109. In this Psalm the Christ, by his 
prophet, after bewailing all that was come upon him at 
his crucifixion, cries out in prayer: 

"That they may know that this is thy hand ; 
that thou, Lord, hast done it." 

Here he seals up the hand of every man who had 
raised a hand against him, in his saying, "thou, Lord, 
hast done it" — "that all men may know his work," as 
said and foretold by his prophet here, that he does. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 353 

Then, when men "know his work," "the beasts go into 
dens, and remain in their places." The simple fact that 
this statement is made and given as a sequel to the 
sealing up of the hand of every man; that all men may 
know his work, is- itself sufficient evidence that some- 
thing of vastly greater import than the mere habits of 
hibernating animals is intended ; for what have these to 
do with the revelation of God to man concerning his 
work, except as they may be used as a figure for some- 
thing connected with that work? As a first suggestion 
of the meaning of the word, "beasts," as used in this 
connection, see I. Corinthians, 15 :32, where the apostle 
says : 

"If after the manner of men I have fought 
with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it 
me, if the dead rise not?" 

Now the only "beasts" fought with by Paul, at 
Ephesus, or elsewhere, were those contenders against 
the truth of the gospel whom he encountered there; 
and already we have the key to the whole problem of 
the verse before us. Peter also, in the 2nd chapter of 
.his 2nd epistle, speaking of "them that walk after the 
flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise govern- 
ment," says: "But these, as natural brute beasts, made 
to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that 
they understand not ; and shall utterly perish in their 
own corruption." These "beasts," with whom Paul fought 
at Ephesus, and whom Peter describes, as above, are 
of the same kind as these of our text; and all that now 
remains is to find .what is signified by their going into 
their dens, and remaining in their places : 

Under the heading of "The joyful flourishing of 
Christ's kingdom," another prophet of the Messiah, 
Isaiah, says of the "way of holiness," that the unclean 
shall not pass over it;" and that "No lion shall be there, 



354 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall 
not be found there ; but the redeemed shall walk there." 
And so it is here prophesied that when Christ's king- 
dom shall have fully come, and the hand of every man 
is sealed up, in the sense that he no more thinks of 
salvation by his own merit, and all men know that this 
is "his work," then the ravenous beasts of the sensual 
passions and selfish ambitions of mankind shall "go 
into dens, and remain in their places" — coming no more 
out forever, as heretofore they have done, to usurp the 
place and power of the Spirit in and over the lives of 
the redeemed. Such, and such only, is the real and true 
significance of these few and simple words of our text 
— the key to the knowledge and understanding of which 
is, like that of each and every text of the work entire, 
the Messianic Idea of it all. 

With this for his light and guide, the student of 
this scripture, taking for his working method that of 
the work itself, which is the method of Spiritual-Nat- 
ural Correspondence, should be able to make out for 
himself the meaning of the remainder of this chapter, 
the most of which must, for want of space, be omitted 
from this treatise. All of its allusions to natural phe- 
nomena, such as "Out of the south cometh the whirl- 
wind : and cold out of the north," &c, &c, are to be 
treated as correspondences to spiritual phenomena of 
the Messianic Age, and not as the scribes treat them, 
in order to make anything out of them worthy of their 
place in the inspired Word of God. In the Song of 
Solomon we read, as here, 

"Awake, O north wind; and come, thou 
south; blow upon my garden, that the spices 
thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come 
into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits." 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 355 

Here the "beloved" is the Christ; and the "gar- 
den" into which he is invited to come, is his church ; 
then the winds which are invoked are the winds of the 
Spirit; and the "north," and the "south" are the quar- 
ters of the spiritual heavens from whence they come. 
It is the same here in verse 9, where it is : 

"Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: 
and cold out of the' north." 

Only here the phenomena are intensified until the 
south wind becomes a whirlwind. 

In this light, verses 12, and 13, scarcely require 
comment; "his bright cloud" sheds its own light upon 
them. 

Verse 14: 

"Hearken unto this, O Job : stand still, 
and consider the wondrous works of God." 

This is not what it has been supposed to be — Eli- 
hu's counsel to Job to hearken well to what has been 
said to him concerning the "wondrous works of God," 
and to consider them, and be wise ; there was no "Eli- 
hu," neither "Job," as such, either to give or to hearken 
to counsel. It is analogous in meaning to the invoca- 
tion of Daniel, 9:19: 

"O Lord, hear ; O Lord, forgive ; O Lord, 
hearken and do ; defer not, for thine own sake, 
O my God : for thy city and thy people are 
called by thy name." 

It is, prophetically, the invocation of the Church, 
of the people that are called by his name, to the Christ, 
who is the true "Job," to hearken and do for their sake. 
It is testimony of him who said : "As I hear, I judge." 
And who did and said nothing until he had first stood 
still and hearkened to the word of God ; and who al- 



356 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

ways considered the "wondrous works of God," in his 
own word and work. Verses 15 to 18, inclusive, con- 
sist of a series of questions, as follows: 

"Dost thou know when God disposed them, 
and caused the light of his cloud to shine? 

"Dost thou know the balancings of the 
clouds, the wondrous works of him which is 
perfect in knowledge? 

"How thy garments are warm, when he 
quieteth the earth by the south wind? 

"Hast thou with him spread out the sky, 
which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?" 

This series of questions, asked in form, by Elihu, 
has always been treated by the scribes as so many sar- 
casms aimed at Job, each one of them implying a nega- 
tive answer, No! He, Job, knows nothing of these 
things, neither has he had anything to do with pro- 
ducing them ; and this, from ignorance of the Messianic 
idea of it all ; consequently, ignorance of the fact that 
all of these "wondrous works of God" are by and 
through his Christ, in the Messianic age. These scorn- 
ful queries, they say, all culminate in the sarcastic invi- 
tation of verse 19 : 

"Teach us what we shall say unto him ; for 
we cannot order our speech by reason of dark- 
ness." 

That is to say : If you know so much of the works 
and ways of God, then teach us what we shall say unto 
him ; for we are not able to order our speech aright, 
being in darkness — "we" and "us," being Elihu and his 
three friends — in a figure of Messianic prophecy. In 
verse 20, the personality of the historic character fore- 
shadowed under the figure of Elihu, which is that of 
Paul, comes clearly to view, as follows : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 357 

"Shall it be told him I speak? if a man 
speak, surely he shall be swallowed up." 

After the miraculous conversion of Saul, and when 
he began to speak in the name of him whom he had but 
lately persecuted, great was the amazement of all that 
heard him, and they said : "Is not this he that destroyed 
them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came 
hither — to Damascus — for that intent, that he might 
bring them bound unto the chief priests?" And now 
should it go up to the throne of God, that he who had 
been bitterest of all in his persecution of the Christ of 
God, had become all of a sudden his most eloquent 
spokesman? for this is the significance of these simple 
words of the prophet : "Shall it be told him that I 
speak?" For what is signified by "he shall be swal- 
lowed up," see Psalm 56:1, 2, where another prophet 
uses the same figure, and in a connection which makes 
it clear : 

"Be merciful unto me, O God; for man 
would swallow me up : he fighting daily op- 
presseth me. 

"Mine enemies would daily swallow me 
up : for there be many that fight against me, 
O thou Most High." 

This is written of the Christ ; and at that period of 
Christian history to which our text specifically refers, 
or the first half of the first century A. D., speaking in 
his name was a fairly sure guarantee of his being swal- 
lowed up, within the meaning of the words as here 
employed. Such was the actual experience of the chief 
of the apostles to the Gentiles. Beaten with rods, stoned 
with stones, in perils of every kind at every hand, his 
life "in jeopardy every hour," until he exclaims with 
the Psalmist : "For thy sake we are killed all the day 



358 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." In 
these things were fulfilled the prophecy concerning him, 
and his fellow speakers in the name of Christ, in that 
day, "if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up" 
— in afflictions. In the next verse, the 21st, the pro- 
phetic story of the gospel is continued : 

"And now men see not the bright light 
which is in the clouds : but the wind passeth, 
and cleanseth them." 

Of the second coming of Christ it is written in 
Revelation 1:7: "Behold, he cometh with clouds;" but 
the passage above, refers to his first coming, which was 
also with clouds. His parables and dark sayings to the 
multitude were so many clouds, in the sense in which 
the word is here used, so that they saw not "the bright 
light" which was in them, and visible to those to whom 
the wind of the Spirit passed and cleansed them of 
their obscurity; and his truth was the bright light that 
was in them, for those ; for as the wind of Nature passes 
and cleanses or attenuates the clouds of the sky so that 
the light of the sun shines through, so the wind of the 
Spirit passes and cleanses the clouds of the letter of the 
Word of God; and this is the basis of the figure of our 
text. It will be remembered that at the day of Pente- 
cost the Spirit came upon the disciples, "a sound from 
heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind . . ." Also in 
other scripture the m,otion and function of the wind is 
or are used as correspondences to those of the Spirit. 
It is so here. 

The passage is specific of the blindness of the Jews 
to the light, the bright light, that was in the clouds of 
the letter of scripture concerning the Christ. Of this, 
the apostle says, in Romans 2 :26, "that blindness in 
part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the 
Gentiles be comte in." They saw not the bright light 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB. 359 

which was in the clouds of parable and allegory con- 
cerning him; and "even unto this day," the apostle con- 
tinues, "when Moses is read, the vail is upon their 
heart." But the wind passeth, and cleanseth them, says 
our text. And of this, the apostle says : "Nevertheless 
when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken 
away." Then, when the wind of the Spirit shall pass 
upon the clouds of the Word of God, and cleanse them 
of their obscurity to their eye, they shall see him in 
them, whom in the flesh they crucified; or as another 
says : "They shall look on him whom ; they pierced." 
"And so all Israel shall be saved." For our text is not 
dealing with mere atmospheric phenomena for their own 
sake, but with them as correspondences to spiritual phe- 
nomena ; and these, of the Messianic age ; with great 
things, worthy of the Word of God. Next, in verse 22 
is this : 

"Fair weather cometh out of the north : 
with God is terrible majesty." 

We are told by the learned in such matters that 
"The Heb. word translated 'fair weather' is the usual 
term for gold." And that "by almost every version, 
ancient and modern," this passage is rendered : "From 
the north cometh gold." Then, one great scholar and 
critic, Calmet, raises the very judicious question: "But 
what relation can there be between, Gold cometh out of 
the north, and, With God is terrible majesty?" And 
no one has ever been able to answer the question to the 
satisfaction of any rational mind ; neither will anyone 
ever be able to do so ; for there is no relation of any 
kind intended or implied in the text, between the cir- 
cumstance that anciently gold was brought from what 
in scripture is termed the "north country," north of 
Judea and Idumea, and the "terrible majesty" of God. 
Neither is there any discoverable relation between the 



360 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

terrible majesty of God, and the simple and oft observed 
circumstance that usually after a season of foul weather 
from the south, or east, or west, if the wind shifts to 
the north, the sky clears up, and a season of fair weather 
succeeds. 

Suppose the circumstances all to be reversed, so 
that all the gold, and all the fair weather, should come 
from the south, instead of from the north, would* not 
the majesty of God be just as great and "terrible" in 
the one instance as in the other? So then we see that 
if we are to discover any understandable relation be- 
tween the two clauses of this verse of scripture, we 
must look beyond the literal sense of the terms of the 
first clause ; for whether we accept the rendering as 
"Fair weather," or as "Gold," we are equally at a loss 
for an idea of any relation between either one of these, 
as coming out of the north, and the "terrible majesty" 
of God — so long as we cling to the literal sense and 
meaning of the terms of the first clause. And it has 
been because of their doing this, that all of the critics, 
both ancient and modern, have wholly missed the true 
spiritual sense and meaning of the verse entire; for 
while they are sharply divided between the two ren- 
derings, the one side contending for "fair weather," and 
the other, for "gold," as the proper one, neither one has 
any advantage over the other when it comes to a final 
analysis of the real intent and purport of the terms of 
the clause. 

In the Hebrew, as in other languages, the same 
word is sometimes used in the literal sense, and some- 
times in the figurative. For instance : In the first verse 
of the 28th chapter of this book, Job is made to say: 
"Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for 
gold where they fine it." Here the word, "gold," is in 
the literal sense ; it means metal. Then in Revelation 
3rd, 18th, it is said to the church in Sardis : "I counsel 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 361 

thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou may- 
est be rich." Here the word, "gold," is used figuratively 
of the supreme good. So here in our text the trans- 
lators have rightly discerned that the word usually em- 
ployed for gold, in the Hebrew, is, in this connection, 
used as figurative of the clear, golden light of the north- 
ern regions after a storm, and have correctly translated 
it as "fair weather," very properly rejecting the use of 
the term "gold," in the literal sense, for which so many 
of the learned have unwisely contended, being unaware 
of the spiritual sense in which the word is here em- 
ployed. 

In the spiritual world there are quarters correspond- 
ing to those of the natural world, as North, South, East' 
and West — all things of the two worlds being in cor- 
respondence to each other. We have already treated 
one example of this truth, in the third verse of the first 
chapter of the book, where it is said of Job that "this 
man was the greatest of all the men of the east." It 
was shown there that the word "east," as there used, 
signifies the place of the dawning of light, spiritual light, 
upon a dark world in the coming into it of him who is 
the Light of the world ; and that the whole passage sig- 
nifies that Job was the chiefest of all the sons of Light, 
or the Christ, in a figure of such an one as he. And 
now we cannot diverge from this principle of interpre- 
tation in our treatment of the term "north," in the verse 
before us. It signifies the northern quarter of the spir- 
itual heavens of the Lord ; the whole figure being based 
upon the correspondence between natural things, and 
spiritual things. The same principle applies to the term 
"south," in verse 9 of this chapter, which reads : 

"Out of the south cometh the whirlwind : 
and cold out of the north." 

Interpreted in the spiritual sense which pervades 
every part of this Word of God, this signifies that out 



362 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

of the heated chambers of the south of the spiritual 
world in man, come the whirlwinds of war, combats and 
tumults of every kind among men, which leave death 
and desolation in their wake, like the whirlwinds of 
external nature. But opposites are met and overcome 
by their opposites ; and the north is the opposite of the 
south ; and so, when the hot and whirling winds of 
heated human passions have spent their force — all com- 
manded, or permitted, of the Lord, and calmer and 
cooler judgment comes from the opposite pole of the 
spiritual heavens, then comes the "cold out of the 
north," within the meaning of these words of the text; 
and then the storm cloud is dispersed, and "Fair weather 
cometh out of the north"— in the high poetic sense of 
the text. 

And now seeing, as we do, that the "whirlwind" 
which cometh "out of the south," is in one word repre- 
sentative of the stupendous whirlwinds of superheated 
human passions which have from time to time swept 
the world since the world began, and in another word, 
representative of the quarter from whence they have 
come, and that the "cold" which "cometh out" of its 
opposite quarter, "the north," is a figure for the cooling 
and calming of such passions by the wind of the Spirit, 
blowing now from another quarter, and bringing "Fair 
weather" into the sky of the human soul, and that all 
of the great and terrible desolations have been wrought 
by the hand of God — "whether for correction, or for 
his land, or for mercy," as said in verse 13. Concern- 
ing this, see Psalm 46:8: 

"Come, behold the works of the Lord, what 
desolations he hath made in the earth." 

This is the analogue of the bringing of the whirl- 
wind of war, with all its desolations, out of the cham- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 363 

bers of the south, by the hand of God. Then, in the 
next verse read : 

"He maketh wars to cease unto the end of 
earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the 
spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the 
fire." 

This is but another prophet's way of saying of the 
same thing: "Fair weather cometh out of the north" — 
after the whirlwind out of the south. Then in Psalm 
66:5, he says : 

"Come and see the works of God : he is 
terrible in his doing toward the children of 
men." 

This, again, is the correspondent passage to, "With 
God is terrible majesty," both in itself, and in its rela- 
tion to the context, and is another illustration of the 
truth that the Bible is its own best interpreter. 

Verse 23 : 

"Touching the Almighty, we cannot find 
him out : he is excellent in power, and in judg- 
ment, and in plenty of justice : he will not 
afflict." 

As often as it comes to pure doctrine in this dis- 
course of Elihu's, so often can we find its correspond- 
ence in the doctrinal parts of the discourses of St. Paul 
— whom Elihu represents in his twofold capacity of 
first, a persecutor, and last, a preacher of Christ. In 
I Timothy, 6:16, we find the correspondence to this 
doctrine of Elihu concerning the inaccessibility of the 
Almighty to human sight, and the excellence of his 
power, judgment and justice, as follows : 

"Who only hath immortality, dwelling in 
the light which no man can approach unto; 



364 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

whom no man hath seen nor can see : to 
whom be honour and power everlasting. 
Amen." 

Verse 24 : 

"Men do therefore fear him : he respecteth 
not any that are wise of heart." 

For this, see I Corinthians, 1 :20, 21 : 

"Where is the wise? where is the scribe? 
where is the disputer of this world? hath not 
God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 
"For after that in the wisdom of God the 
world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God 
by the foolishness of preaching to save them 
that believe." 

All of this, and much more which the chiefest oi 
the apostles to the Gentiles has to say on this subject, 
is an amplification of the brief text of his prototype in 
Messianic prophecy : "He respecteth not any that are 
wise of heart." With this, ends the great, original, and 
wholly unique discourse of Elihu. The discourses of 
his three friends and fellow countrymen — the chief 
priests, scribes and Pharisees of the* Jews — are stale 
and vapid in comparison with the freshness and force 
of his speech. They consist mainly of maxims borrowed 
from the ancients, perverted and misapplied at that, of 
stale traditions and trite sayings of the elders — out of 
time and place for the occasion, however true in them- 
selves they may have been — and forged over into false- 
hoods to suit their present purpose. In short, they are 
all "forgers of lies, and physicians of no value," as Job 
so justly accuses them of being, without an interregnum 
of stolen truth correctly applied to the case in hand, 
from start to finish. They are figures in Messianic proph- 
ecy of the false accusers of the Christ in his day, and 
of- all who are like unto them to the end of the world. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 365 

And their discourse has been drawn by the prophet in 
strict accord with their office and function in the sacred 
drama, which are to represent those false accusers. 

So also has the discourse of Elihu been constructed 
in strict accord with his office and function therein, 
which in general is to. represent the giving of the gospel 
to the Gentile nations of the world, and in particular, 
that person who was a chief chosen agent of the Lord 
for that purpose and to that end, namely : St. Paul. For 
as Saul was "a chosen vessel" unto the Lord to bear his 
name "before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children 
of Israel" as said the Lord to Ananias, so the Elihu of 
the prophetic drama of today, which is called the Book 
of Job, is a chosen figure, and a constructed type of the 
same. It may be noted incidentally in this connection, 
that of all the dramatis personam of this great* Passion 
Play, only two stand out in a sufficiently clear, strong, 
and distinct individuality of their own to be recognized 
as types and figures of known persons and characters 
of Christian history. xA.ll of the others represent classes 
or aggregates of individuals, none of them single per- 
sons or characters. And these two are Job, and Elihu — 
the one representing Jesus, the Christ, in his person and 
office, and the other, Paul, the Apostle, in the same way 
and capacity. And though he, Elihu, does not again 
appear upon the stage of this drama of Messianic proph- 
ecy, no further mention of him being made, after the 
conclusion of this six-chaptered speech of his, he reap- 
pears many centuries afterwards, this time on the stage 
of the drama of real, living history; first, as Saul, the 
fiercest' of the persecutors of the Christ,, in his day, and 
finally, as Paul, the greatest of his apostles to the Gen- 
tile world, after the rejection of his gospel by the Jews." 

And there he displays the same burning zeal and 
fiery energy in his persecution of Christ, at first, as here 
he does, at first, in his denunciations of Job. And at 



366 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB. 

last, as a chosen vessel to bear the name of the Lord to 
other lands and peoples afar, "Behold-his-belly is as 
wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new 
bottles," even as here, under the name of Elihu, saying, 
"I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth 
me." Could any words better describe the always fer- 
menting and bursting zeal of the Apostle Paul than 
these? Then as a speaker or writer in the cause of 
Christ, there is the same vehement, urgent and elliptical 
spirit and manner of utterance as here where, as Elihu, 
he at first vehemently denounces Job as a hypocrite, 
and ardently desires that he "may be tried unto the end," 
and after his heart trembles and "is moved out of his 
place," which is Saul's conversion, he humbly invokes 
his aid and instruction as to what he shall say unto God, 
which is Paul's recognition of the Christ whom he had 
so bitterly persecuted, and "tried unto the end," as now 
his sole light and guide unto the end that he might bring 
salvation to the Gentiles ; and from this, on to the end, 
he teaches the same doctrine as that of Elihu, in the 
after half of his discourse. 

Everything corresponds — the time-order of the 
events of the two dramas ; the one, of prophecy ; the 
other, of its fulfilling history. Elihu comes on the stage 
of the first, just after his three friends have failed to con- 
vict Job of any error of speech or conduct, and yet have 
condemned him. So Saul comes into prominence as a 
persecutor of Christ, just as his friends have finished 
their trial of him, and having found no fault in him, yet 
have condemned him. Finally, everything considered, 
the wholly unhistorical, and purely prophetical charac- 
ter of the work entire, the non-existence of any such real 
persons as Job, or Elihu, the close correspondence be- 
tween the traits of character, temperament, talents, ca- 
reer, and changed relation to the hero of the drama on 
the part of Elihu, and his message to the world, and all 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB. 367 

these on the part of St. Paul, leads us irresistibly to the 
conclusion that in this great character of the drama, 
second in greatness only to that of Job himself, we have 
a well-chosen, and an admirably well-wrought corre- 
spondence to that character of Christian history which, 
in its recorded greatness, is second only to that of the 
Christ himself — his chosen apostle to the Gentiles, St. 
Paul. 



CHAPTER XUII. 

SEE CHAPTER III. ON CORRESPONDENCES. 

The Whirlwind. (Job xxxviii.) 

"Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone 
forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind : it 
shall fall grievously upon the head of the 
wicked." — Jeremiah, 23:19. 

The whirlwinds of Nature make no discrimination 
between the righteous and the wicked; they fall just as 
grievously upon the head of the one as the other. But 
with the whirlwind of the Lord, it is different; it is a 
whirlwind of judgment upon the wicked. In every in- 
stance where the whirlwind is mentioned in the scrip- 
tures — save this in Job — the immediate context shows 
clearly that destruction of the wicked, and of their works, 
is described as coming upon them like a whirlwind. In 
Psalm 58 :3, we read : "The wicked are estranged from 
the womb : they go astray as soon as they be born, 
speaking lies." Then in verse 9, of the same chapter, 
"Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them 
away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath." 

And while in this whirlwind, of Job, nothing is said 
in the close context of the wicked, or of judgment, or of 
wrath, the entire text of the work as a whole, when in- 
terpreted as Messianic testimony, shows us that this is 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB. 369 

no exception ; that this also is a whirlwind of the Lord 
Christ, coming to the judgment of the world. It is, in 
its way, testimony of him who said: "For judgment I 
am come into this world." And, "Now is the judgment 
of this world : now shall the prince of this world be cast 
out." Yet all of the wise and prudent who have written 
commentaries on this subject have settled down together 
in the child-like faith that this was a literal whirlwind, 
and that the Lord of heaven and earth came in person, 
and out of the midst of a mighty commotion of the ele- 
ments of the natural world, delivered an address of six 
chapters in length, as recorded in scripture, for the sole 
purpose of rebuking the arrogance, and humbling the 
pride of one of the patriarchs of old who happened just 
then to be living in the land of Uz, and whose name was 
Job. And by the way, what a tremendous man this man 
Job must have been to call for the personal coming of 
the Almighty in cloud and storm, solely to convince 
him that, after all, he was not quite so great a man as he 
thought he was ! 

Now this easy faith of the critics in the actual and 
literal occurrence of that great event, just as narrated 
and described, answers well to the definition of Faith 
given by a little girl at Sunday school. She said : "It's 
just believing what you know isn't so." They all know 
it isn't so ; but that being all they know about it, they 
make a merit of professing to believe it is so, or was so, 
and proceed to treat it as though it were an account of 
an actual circumstance in ancient history — not knowing 
what else to do with it, and being under a self-imposed 
necessity of doing something with it. But now to the 
text : 

Verse 1 : 

"Then the Lord answered Job out of the 
whirlwind, and said," 



370 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

First of all, when did the Lord answer Job out of 
the whirlwind? Then, what was the whirlwind out of 
which he answered him ? Finally, how, and in what way 
was the answer of the Lord given to Job? Christianity 
is the religion that does things — a mighty, revolution- 
izing, destructive force, as well as constructive. And 
when the Christ of God came down from heaven to 
earth, he came to accomplish something. "For still the 
Lord is Lord of might. In deeds, in deeds, he takes de- 
light." And that something, was the revolutionizing of 
the world, morally, spiritually, politically, scientifically, 
socially ; in each and every department of human life, 
with all its many and various interests and occupations, 
to tear down and destroy the works of the devil, and to 
build up and establish righteous works and institutions 
in their place. And when this began to be accomplished, 
after the rejection of the gospel by the Jews, and its ac- 
ceptance by the Gentiles, then began the Lord to answer 
Job out of the whirlwind of both destructive and con- 
structive revolution which Jesus, the Christ, had begun 
to raise "up from the coasts of the earth" with his radi- 
cal and revolutionizing doctrines ; for "Job" is Jesus, the 
overturner and the upbuilder, the leveler of the moun- 
tains, and the exalter of the valleys of the institutions of 
men. And the answer of the Lord to the works and the 
words of his Christ, was in the way of results granted 
to him for his labors and his sacrifices on behalf of hu- 
man kind ; for now, God had "made an hedge about him, 
and about his house, and about all that he had on every 
side," and had "blessed the work of his hands, and his 
substance was increased in the land" — as prophesied of 
him, under the figure of the prosperity of Job, in the 
prologue of the drama. 

But the whirlwind of the Lord, which he had sent 
his Son to raise up from the coasts of the earth, had only 
begun to blow when at last "The words of Job are 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 371 

ended" — as said of his personal ministry under that fig- 
ure, in a previous chapter. It was to be immensely aug- 
mented in force and volume until at length it should 
sweep the earth until the last vestige of the works of 
the devil therein should be swept away into everlasting 
oblivion. And it was so ; from time to time, from cent- 
ury to century, it slowly gathered force, and expanded in 
breadth, until, after a lapse of long centuries, the provi- 
dential discovery and invention of the art and science 
of printing letters by movable type, gave it a sudden and 
tremendous impulse of added force and volume. Then 
came the electric telegraph, the modern railway system, 
the navigation of the seas by vessels driven by steam, 
with all of their vastly improved methods of transporta- 
tion and communication between the hitherto separated 
peoples of the world, until today the rush and roar of the 
mighty whirlwind of the Lord are felt and heard around 
the earth. 

All of these agencies and instrumentalities for the 
upbuilding of a great, new, and enlightened Christian 
civilization in the latter days, together with others in 
the same line of advance, to be noted in their time and 
place, are prophesied and set forth under an apt figure of 
its own, in the address of the Deity to Job, out of the 
whirlwind. Of this sublime address itself, it only re- 
mains to say in this connection, that under the grand 
figure of Jehovah answering Job, out of a whirlwind, is 
set forth prophetically, the practical dealings of Divine 
Providence with the human race during the great revo- 
lutionary epoch of the Christian Era, in the midst of 
which, we are, today. And these, as the practical result 
and outcome of and from the works and words of his 
Christ, in the world. All this is what is called in the 
sublime imagery of the text, the answer of the Lord to 
Job, out of the whirlwind. In this way it is, that at last 
we begin to get a comparatively clear idea of the real 



372 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

and true greatness of a work which for ages has been 
belittled and degraded by false principles and incom- 
petent methods of interpretation. 

We will now undertake thoughtfully to consider 
what it was that the Lord is said to have said to Job 
out of the whirlwind, in the light of the Messianic idea 
and meaning of it all, beginning with verse 2 : 

"Who is this that darkeneth counsel by 
words without knowledge?" 

Here we are instantly reminded of verse 5, chapter 
8, of Solomon's Song: "Who is this that cometh up 
from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" It is 
the church ; and her "beloved" is the Christ. So is this 
the Christ, in this greater than any or all the canticles 
of Solomon, where the Spirit sweetly sings of its beloved, 
"Who is this?" — knowing who it is; that it is he who 
should say of himself 



L S 



"For Judgment I am come into this world, 
that they which see not might see; and that 
they which see might be made blind." 

And to the end that those who saw, might be made 
blind, and who were the Jews, he darkened his counsel 
to them by words which, to them, were "without knowl- 
edge." It will be remembered that Elihu, whose estimate 
of the discourse of Job represents the Jewish estimate of 
the doctrine of Jesus, said : "Therefore doth Job open 
his mouth in vain ; he multiplieth words without knowl- 
edge." Again, when speaking to the great multitudes on 
the shore, while he sat on the ship, he spoke to them in 
parables of which they understood not a word, as he 
know they would not, and as he designed that they 
should not. It was not given to them to know the 
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, he said : "There- 
fore speak I to them in parables." That is, in words 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 373 

which they could not understand. This was art- 
other illustration of his darkening counsel "by words 
without knowledge" — within the meaning of what is 
written of him here. This then, so far from being a 
condemnation of Job, by the Lord, for his foolish speak- 
ing, is, under this figure, a divine commendation of his 
Christ for his wise adaptation of his words to the com- 
prehension of his hearers. To the wise, his words were 
full of knowledge, while to the foolish, he purposely 
made them empty thereof, for that he would not cast 
his pearls of knowledge and wisdom before swine, even 
as he counselled his disciples not to do. Therefore, on 
occasion he wisely and shrewdly darkened counsel "by 
words without knowledge" — to his hearers. The ques- 
tion then, "Who is this . . . ■?" that does this thing, 
is certainly not asked for information by the Lord, but 
is one for the interpreter to answer; and the answer is: 
It is the Christ. In the next verse the Lord says to Job : 

"Gird up now thy loins like a man ; for I 
will demand of thee, and answer thou me." 

The figure of girding up the loins, as here used, is 
derived from the immemorial custom of drawing a 
girdle or belt, tightly about the loins when about to 
engage in some physical task requiring extraordinary 
strength and endurance, like running a race, or fighting 
a battle ; this, with the idea of giving strength and sup- 
port to the weakest part of the body. It is frequently 
employed as a figure for strength and support from 
God to man in his weakness, throughout the scriptures. 
And if we turn now to Isaiah, 11 :5, we shall find some- 
thing there which may shed light on the passage be- 
fore us, both as to whom, it refers, and as to what is sig- 
nified by girding up his loins. There, that other prophet 
of the same as here, says of him : "And righteousness 



374 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the 
girdle of his reins." 

Here, these words of the Lord: "Gird up now thy 
loins like a man," refer to the incarnation of the Son of 
God, who "took upon him the form of a servant, and 
was made in the likeness of men." So, as the servant 
of a man must answer to his master for the work he has 
given him to do, must this servant of God answer to 
God for the work which God has sent him into the 
world to do ; "for I will demand of thee, and answer 
thou me," says the Lord to Job, who is Jesus, in type 
and figure. And now the full significance of the com- 
mand 'of the Lord to Job to gird up now his loins "like 
a man," becomes clear. As a man, about to enter upon 
and undertake some great task, trying to the utmost of 
his strength and endurance, girds up his loins for his 
task, so must needs the Son of God put on righteous- 
ness for the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness for the 
girdle of his reins, that he may be able to make answer 
in the way of works and results, to him who has put 
upon him the great and stupendous task of the redemp- 
tion and salvation of a lost and ruined world. 

This is what is spoken of in chapter 29, where Job 
— always and everywhere an acting or speaking figure 
of Christ — is made to say: "I put on righteousness, 
and it clothed me : my judgment was as a robe and a 
diadem." And now with verse 4, of this chapter, begins 
a series of interrogations by the Lord, addressed to Job, 
in dramatic form, which runs on through this, and the 
three next chapters, ending in the 41st and next to the 
last chapter of the book. And it is now high time that 
the preposterous notion that the Almighty came in per- 
son and literally propounded all, or any of these ques- 
tions to the patriarch Job, who never even existed, were 
exploded and succeeded by some rational idea of it all. 
For why should we longer be deceived and misled by 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 375 

the form of the letter of this inspired word of God, and 
accept it for what it appears to be on the face of it, in 
lieu of that search of the scriptures enjoined upon us 
by him who also added to this injunction, in order that 
we might have a true light and guide for our search, 
that they testify of him? Now for the text: 

Verse 4 : 

"Where wast thou when I laid the founda- 
tions of the earth? declare, if thou hast under- 
standing." 

To begin with, this tiny speck of matter, whirling 
through cosmic space, and which we call the earth, has 
no "foundations," in any literal sense of the term; it 
consists of innumerable and inconceivably small parti- 
cles held together by a mutual, inherent attraction. And 
to accept the laying of the foundations of the earth, as 
here spoken of, in any literal sense, were to imagine the 
Almighty a mere mechanic with a stone hammer in one 
hand, and a mason's hammer in the other, working at 
the job of laying the foundations of the earth. Then, 
to accept this question, ''Where wast thou . . . ?" 
as literally asked of Job, by the Lord, as though 
demanding an explanation of his whereabouts at that 
particular time, were to cap the climax of all the ab- 
surdity of supposing that there is anything literal in- 
tended in this asking of a question by the Lord, or as 
to the foundations of the natural earth. Concerning 
this, Job himself tells us in verse 7, of chapter 26, that 
the earth is founded on nothing: "He stretcheth out 
the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth 
upon nothing." 

It is the "new earth," which, with a "new heaven," 
was to be created at the coming of the Christ into the 
world, that is meant here ; and the "foundations" of this 
"earth" are its fundamental principles. It is the body 



376 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

organic of the church of Christ, that is here called "the 
earth ;" while the new heaven that was to be created 
with it, is the church spiritual and holy. In Isaiah, 
65:17, after a prophetic account of the rejection of the 
gospel, by the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles, the 
Lord says : 

"For, behold, I create new heavens and a 
new earth ; and the former shall not be remem- 
bered, nor come into mind." 

This being given in connection with the calling of 
the Gentiles, shows us that the creation of the new 
heavens, and the new earth was to be accomplished, or 
begun, at the advent of Christ. And now the question 
addressed — dramatically — to Job, by the Lord : "Where 
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?" 
becomes clearly intelligible, both as tp whom it refers, 
and as to its significance. It is of the Christ, under the 
figure of Job, that this is written ; and the question as 
to where he was when God laid the foundations of the 
earth, is answered in Proverbs, 8th chapter ; for still 
the Bible is its own best interpreter and answerer. 
Moreover, it is answered in the same lofty strains of 
sublimity in which it is asked, together with other 
questions in this connection. In this chapter the author 
of Proverbs discourses of the fame, the excellency, and 
the eternity of the wisdom of God, Christ being both 
"the power of God, and the wisdom of God," as we are 
told in 1st Corinthians, 1 :24. He is therefore discours- 
ing of Christ when he says in verse 27 : 

"When he prepared the heavens, I was 
there ; when he set a compass upon the face 
of the depth;" 

And in verses 29, and 30 : 

"When he gave to the sea his decree, that 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 377 

the waters should not pass his commandment: 
when he appointed the foundations of the 
earth : 

"Then I was by him, as one brought up 
with him : and I was daily his delight, rejoic- 
ing always before him." 

And that the writer of this is not discoursing of 
wisdom in the abstract, but of wisdom as embodied 
and personified in the Christ of God, and of his min- 
istry to man, is seen in the next verse : 

"Rejoicing in the habitable part of his 
earth ; and my delights were with the sons of 
men." 

As for the second and last clause of the verse: "de- 
clare, if thou hast understanding," he of whom all this is 
testimony, did have understanding, and did declare 
where he was when God laid the foundations of the 
earth, the new earth, wherein righteousness should 
dwell ; that he was with the Father in glory, "before the 
world was." In verses 5, 6, and 7, we have the follow- 
ing: 

"Who hath laid the measures thereof, if 
thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line 
upon it? 

"Whereupon are the foundations thereof 
fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 

"When the morning- stars sang together, • 
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" 

Here the words derived from the builder's vocabu- 
lary, such as "measures," "line," "foundations," and 
"corner stone" are used metaphorically of the building 
of the new earth under the new heavens of the Lord, 



378 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the same as in Isaiah, 28:16, 17, where Christ the sure 
foundation and tried corner-stone is promised and meant, 
the same as here : 

"Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Be- 
hold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a 
tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure 
foundation ; he that believeth shall not make 
haste." 

"Judgment also will I lay to the line, and 
righteousness to the plummet : and the hail shall 
sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters 
shall overflow the hiding place." 

We need look no farther than this for the meaning 
and application of the "measures," the "foundations," 
the "line," and the "corner stone," of the verses before 
us here ; they are the same here in Job, as there in 
Isaiah ; that is, they are Messianic, and not geologic — - 
as we have for so long been mistakenly taught to think, 
or rather, to believe without thinking. Nevertheless, 
one of the later critics, Cowles, has rendered us a service 
in this connection, in a new and improved translation 
of the words, "if thou knowest?" into, "for thou know- 
est." This changes the clause from a question to an af- 
firmation, and one which harmonizes with the Messianic 
meaning and intent of the words ; for he of whom all this 
testifies, knew who had laid the measures thereof, who 
had stretched the line upon it, whereupon the founda- 
tions thereof were fastened, and who had laid the corner 
stone thereof, and that himself was It. 

Even so, the clause rendered "if thou hast under- 
standing," should have been made, "for thou hast under- 
standing," as referring to him of whom it is written in 
Isaiah 11 :2, 

"And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 379 

him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, 
the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of 
knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." 

And this, to the end that he might "declare among 
the people his doings," and also where he was when 
God "laid the foundations of the earth," as he did so 
declare, that he was with him, then and there. "When 
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God 
shouted for joy," found its fulfillment, not when God 
began the creation of the natural earth, but when he 
laid in Zion for a foundation, "a precious corner stone, 
a sure foundation, which was the Son of God ;" not when 
the mud sills of this temporary and perishable habitation 
of man were put in place, but when in Bethlehem of 
Judea was born "a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," 
as said the angel of the proclamation of his birth, to the 
watching shepherds in the field by night. 

"And suddenly there was with the angel a 
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, 
and saying, 

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace, good will toward men." 

Then it was, that "the morning stars sang together, 
and all the sons of God shouted for joy," and the words 
of this prophecy were fulfilled; for prophecy it is, and 
not a history of the exultation of the hosts of heaven, 
over the laying of the foundations of the natural earth. 
For what was there, or what could there have been, in 
that simply natural process, however it may have been 
carried out, to become an occasion for a concert of song 
among the morning stars, or to so excite the sons of 
God that they should all shout, for joy? On the other 
hand, what was there not, in the laying of the founda- 
tions of the new, Messianic earth, and of that "precious 
corner stone" which should become "a great mountain" 



380 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

which should fill "the whole earth" with "peace and good 
will toward men" — what was there not in these things 
to set the morning stars to singing together, and to 
cause all the sons of God to shout aloud for joy? For if 
there is more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant 
sinner than over ninety and nine who never went astray, 
what rejoicing- must there not have been in heaven over 
the restoration and salvation of a lost and ruined world 
when God laid the foundations of a new earth wherein 
righteousness should dwell, and gave his Christ to be 
the corner stone thereof? Well might the morning stars 
join in a mighty concert of singing, and all the sons of 
God shout for joy over a consummation so "devoutly to 
be wished" as this, by all in heaven, and earth as well. 

And it is in these things that we find something 
commensurate with the dignity of t the theme, the 
sublimity of its treatment, and the grandeur of the occa- 
sion — the speaking of Jehovah to Job, "out of the whirl- 
wind" — and in nothing less than these. And it may be 
noted here, that if the occasion was simply what the 
critics have called it, one for the humiliation of the patri- 
arch Job, by contrast of his littleness with the greatness 
of God, as displayed in his works, then the vastness of 
the means employed is wholly out of proportion to the 
smallness of the end, and the entire address of the Deity, 
out of the whirlwind, is an extravaganza of the most 
pronounced type. 

But if the end in view be, not the abasement of Job, 
the patriarch, but the exaltation of Jesus, the Christ, 
then to this heavenly theme sublime strains like these, 
most properly belong, and this stupendous array of 
scenic properties upon the stage of the drama is fully 
justified, but not otherwise. Verses 8, 9, 10, 11, are a 
continuation of figures from nature, of things spiritual 
and Messianic, as now follows: 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 381 

"Or who shut up the sea with doors, when 
it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the 
womb? 

"When I made the cloud the garment 
thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band 
for it, 

"And brake up for it my decreed place, and 
set bars and doors, 

"And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but 
no further : and here shall thy proud waves be 
stayed?"" 

There is here no allusion to the sea of waters, nor 
to clouds of the sky, nor to darkness of the natural day, 
as finalities of the discourse, but only as representative 
of the. divine government of the spiritual world of man- 
kind, from the beginning to the end of the old order of 
things, and the establishment of a new and better order 
at the advent of its creator, the Christ. The "sea" "when 
it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb," is 
here used as a figure for the natural, unrestrained pas- 
sions and lawless propensities of unregenerate human 
nature in general, but specifically of the infantile state 
of mankind, morally and spiritually, while yet the world 
was young, and had as yet but begun to be born to a 
sense of the divine government of things, and had but 
an infantile perception of moral law and order. This 
wild and savage sea of the soul of the natural world of 
mankind was lawless, and of itself, unrestrained, and 
"it brake forth" on every possible occasion "as if it 
had issued out of the womb" — a metaphor from the 
sudden gushing forth of the "liquor amnii," or "bag of 
waters," at childbirth, for the sudden irruptions of the 
waters of that "sea" which is the soul of the natural 
man, at and during the stages of his first birth. 

Then God "made the cloud the garment thereof, 



382 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

and thick darkness a swaddling band for it" — another 
metaphor from the first swathing of the newborn in- 
fant in garments and bands suitable thereto, for the 
cloud of such laws and statutes as were suited to their 
needs, and which they could bear, but could not com- 
prehend, and they were "thick darkness" to them, all 
at the birth of his chosen people, for it is of God's deal- 
ings with it, as with a newborn infant, that the text 
before us now speaks to prepare for, and to bring all 
down to the dawning of the Light of the world which 
it does in the last verse of the series, and in the next 
succeeding verse. Verse 10 : 

"And brake up for it my decreed place, 
and set bars and doors," 

has always been a bone of contention among the crit- 
ics, some of them misunderstanding it in one way, and 
some in another. Clarke tells us that "This refers to 
the decree, Gen. 1 :9 : "Let the waters under the heavens 
be gathered together unto one place." But as to what 
is signified by the breaking up of that one "decreed 
place," which is the gist of the passage, he wisely re- 
frains from undertaking to say. Cowles says of this : 
"In verse 10, the English version is wide of the true 
sense, which is : "And then I assigned my bounds to it." 
This favorite resort of the schoolmen when they are 
puzzled, tampering with the translation, avails nothing 
here ; it does not explain what is meant by these words 
of the Lord : "And brake up for it my decreed place 
. . ." All this comes from confining God's Word to 
the literal sense of the words, and underlooking the 
spiritual sense — supposing that the "sea" is a body of 
water, and its "bars and doors," banks of earth, and 
inlets and outlets for fresh, and salt water, and that 
the "place," the "decreed place" which is broken up for 
it, the sea, is the bed of the ocean. Small wonder then, 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 383 

that they cannot explain what is meant by the break- 
ing up of the floor of the sea, since there is no record 
of the occurrence of so tremendous a catastrophe as 
this, which would be equivalent to the destruction of 
the globe. 

While "the sea," as the term is here used, is a 
whole figure of the universal soul of mankind, and its 
breaking forth "as if it had issued out of the womb," 
that is, suddenly and violently, stands for its sudden 
and violent overflowings of the boundaries of law and 
order, as laid down and prescribed by the Almighty, 
still there is something here that is specific in its appli- 
cation to the Jewish nation — as witness its many re- 
volts and rebellions against the laws and statutes of the 
Lord, as given to them by Moses. And now we come 
to consider what is meant by, "And brake up for it my 
decreed place, and set bars and doors." Every nation 
of people under the heavens of the Lord has its own 
decreed place in the order of the providences of the 
Almighty ; and the Jewish nation had its decreed place 
among the other nations of the earth, not only geo- 
graphically, but morally and spiritually as well. It was 
shown at the time of treatment that the coming of the 
three friends of Job to visit him in his affliction, "every 
one from his own place," signifies every one from his 
own particular sphere of thought and feeling. The 
word "place" has the same significance here as there. 

In the order of divine Providence, the* "decreed 
place," spiritually considered, of the "chosen people" 
was between the idolatries of the heathen world, on the 
one hand, and the pure worship of the only true God, 
on the other, as culminating in Christianity. This peo- 
ple was the decreed custodian and keeper of the Law, 
as typical of, and preparatory for, the Gospel. They 
were the "decreed place" in which the statutes and 
judgments of the Almighty were set up for the first 



384 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

time in the world's history ; and this was their pre- 
eminent distinction, that "unto them were committed 
the oracles of God." He had not dealt so Avith any 
people ; in short, the kingdom of God was come unto 
them, and they knew it not ; neither brought they forth 
any of the fruits thereof. Then came the Christ, for 
whose coming- their unkept law was a preparation, and 
him they rejected. 

"Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read 
in the scriptures, The stone which the builders 
rejected, the same is become the head of the 
corner : this is the Lord's doing, and it is mar- 
vellous in our eyes? 

"Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom 
of God shall be taken from you, and given to 
a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." 

This taking away from the Jews the kingdom of 
God, because they brought not forth the fruits thereof, 
and giving it to the Gentiles, who should bring forth 
fruit therefrom, is the historic fulfillment of the break- 
ing up of "my decreed place," of the text before us; 
and the correspondence to it in the Christ's own per- 
sonal teaching, is in his parable of the fruitless vine- 
yard, the lord of which sent his servants — the prophets 
— to the husbandmen, and they killed them. Last of 
all, he sent his son — the Christ — and him also they slew. 
What will he do ? 

"He will miserably destroy those wicked 
men, and will let out his vineyard unto other 
husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits 
in their seasons." 

Or, under this other figure of the same thing, he 
will break up for it his decreed place for the establish- 
ment of his kingdom — which was Jewry — and give it to 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 385 

Gentiledom, or the whole world, by his Son, the Christ. 
It is of "the sea," that the Lord says here that he brake 
up, for it, his decreed place . . ." And "the sea" 
is a correspondingly large figure of the universal, human 
soul. It was then, in. a larger dispensation than of old, 
that the gospel was taken from the Jews, and given to 
the world at large. And this is the real and true sig- 
nificance of these words of the Lord to Job, in a dra- 
matic form of Messianic prophecy : 

"And brake up for it my decreed place, and 
set bars and doors, 

"And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but 
no further : and here shall thy proud waves be 
stayed?" 

But what "bars and doors," and whereto is it that 
"the sea" shall come, "but no further"? These "bars" 
are the statutes of the Lord, which say that "Christ is 
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that 
believeth" — the limit and end of the dispensations of the 
Almighty to the human race. To Him they not only 
may, but must and shall come; but no further may, or 
can, they go. He is the end of all perfection, and the 
consummation of all the means provided by the Lord 
for the salvation of the world. To him, it must come. 
Be}ond him, they cannot go. And here, at the foot of 
his cross, shall all the "proud waves" of that surging 
sea "be stayed." And these "doors" are the same of 
which it is written in Psalm 24:7: 

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye 
lift up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King of 
glory shall come in." 

Verses 12, 13 : 

"Hast thou commanded the morning since 



386 THE NEW -BOOK OF JOB 

thy days ; and caused the dayspring to know 
his place : 

"That it might take hold of the ends of the 
earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of 

it?" 

If the reader of this, who has never read any of the 
standard commentaries, can believe it, they tell us that 
this is a question asked by the Almighty in person, out 
of a whirlwind, of the patriarch Job, whether or not he 
has commanded the sun to rise and shine every morning 
since he was born into the world, and also caused the 
variations of the place of its appearance upon the eastern 
horizon morning after morning, since it never arises at 
the same exact place any two successive mornings in 
the year. And all this, to the end that burglars and 
other night prowlers and thieves may be warned that it 
is now time for them to quit work and go to sleep dur- 
ing the day. Thus they make of the solar system one 
vast burglar alarm, with the only question at issue in the 
text before us : Does Job control its mechanism, and 
set off the alarm every- morning at sunrise, only taking 
a little pains each morning to start it going at a slightly 
different place in the heavens above from that of the pre- 
ceding morning — so causing "the dayspring to know his 
place," and to take it. 

To say nothing of the greatness of the speaker, who 
is dramatically assumed to have been the Lord in person, 
it would seem that the very dignity and sublimity of the 
tone and style of the text should have suggested a larger 
active construction of its purport than the putting of a 
comparatively few night prowlers to sleep in the morn- 
ing, only to waken again at nightfall to renew their 
depredations with renewed opportunities. For true it is 
that "To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong." 
And here the theme is, under the figure of the natural 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 387 

morning, the dawning of the world's great New Day, 
after its long dark night of the ages, and under the fig- 
ure of Job, him who was, in his own words, its "bright 
and morning star," himself the "dayspring" which "from 
on high hath visited us," as said of the coming of Christ, 
in Luke 1 :78. 

Then that it — the dayspring — might take hold of 
the ends of the earth, "that the wicked might be shaken 
out of it," finds its true significance and correspondence 
in John, 12:31 : 

"Now is the judgment of this world: now 
shall the prince of this world be cast out." 

For whether the judgment of the world is called a 
taking hold of the ends of the earth, "that the wicked 
might be shaken out of it," or the casting out of it of 
"the prince of this world," and all his cohorts of wicked- 
ness with him, it is all one and the same thing. And the 
"Dayspring" of our text is one and the same with that 
of Luke, 1 :78, where the context clearly shows it to be 
the Christ; for all this is testimony of him and his work 
in the world. And now the only question left to be an- 
swered in this connection is : Who has commanded the 
morning, the Messianic morning, since the days of Christ 
began, and caused the dayspring to know his place, that 
it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the 
wicked might be shaken out of it? 

There is no controversy here betwixt the Lord and 
Job, who is but a speaking figure of and for the Christ ; 
neither does it represent any controversy between the 
Lord and his Christ as to who is the commander-in-chief 
in the grand march of such great events as the coming 
on of the morning of the world's New Day, and the caus- 
ing of the dayspring to know his place in the order of 
these events. It is simply the way of the drama in set- 
ting clearly forth the relation of Christ the Son, to God 



388 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the Father, in their joint work of the judgment of the 
world, to the end that the wicked may be shaken out of 
it, and it become the abode of the righteous only. And 
the doctrine of this relation as set forth here, is in per- 
fect harmony with the teaching of Christ. Here God 
asks a series of questions of Job — if he has done or can 
do all or any of these great and wonderful things — and 
they all imply a negative answer ; he has not done, nor 
can he do any one of them all. 

And at the last, he is made to acknowledge this, and 
that God "can do everything," while he, of himself, can 
do nothing. So taught the Christ, saying: "Of myself 
I can do nothing." He had not commanded the morning 
since his days, nor had he caused the dayspring to know 
his place. He was himself the "dayspring from on high" 
whom God had caused to "know his place," and his time, 
after that he had "visited us." Nothing that he said or 
did was of or from himself, but everything was of and 
from God. This constant recognition of the omnipotence 
and the omnipresence of God, was at once the central 
point of all his doctrine, and the secret of all his mar- 
vellous power. And this is the sum total of the doctrine 
of this Book of Job, as set forth in the fixed principle 
of its preface, or prologue, and as here specifically illus- 
trated and set forth in this formal series of self-negating 
interrogations of the Lord to Job, out of the whirlwind. 

And as it is only the recognition of the truth that 
God is all, and does all, and abiding in that truth as 
Jesus abode in it, that can give any person peace of mind, 
or endue him with power from on high, so it is only 
through that same recognition of that same truth that 
anyone will be enabled rightly to understand, and cor- 
rectly to apply the group of figures, many of them de- 
rived from the animal kingdom, which is evolved from 
the address of the Deity to Job. From the first until 
now, the address has dealt exclusively with the funda- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 389 

mental principles and foundations of Messianism; but 
now, in the next verse, it begins to treat of special 
agencies and instruments wrought by the hand of God 
for the upbuilding and practical outcome of the king- 
dom of God on earth. This verse reads as follows: 

Verse 14: 

"It is turned as clay to the seal; and they 
stand as a garment." 

There has been much wholly fruitless speculation 
upon the probable and possible meaning of this verse, 
among the wise and learned, not one of whom has ever 
approximated to a solution of its problem. Mr. Good 
translates it to read : "Canst thou cause them to bend 
round as clay to the mould, so that they are made to sit 
like a garment?" He means the rays of the sun, bending 
round the earth, and making, as it were, a garment for 
it, preferring the garment to "sit," rather than to 
"stand," as in the text. And as this garment is one of 
his own manufacture, he is surely entitled to the right 
to make it sit instead of stand. But Dr. Clarke objects 
to his mode of making it sit, by saying: "It is well 
known that the rays of light never bend; they never go 
out of a straight course." Then he puts forth a flowery 
theory of his own, which, while it is very pretty, is of no 
more practical value than Mr. Good's, as an aid to inter- 
pretation of the text. He says: "There seems to be an 
allusion here to the sealing of clay" — that is, the stamp- 
ing of metallic types into soft clay to make readable 
characters therein. So, he says, the rays of solar light 
make similar impressions on the surface of the earth, 
and then plants and flowers spring up and decorate the 
earth, and make a garment for it. 

Our reply to this must be after the manner of his 
reply to Mr. Good : It is very well known that solar 
rays do not stamp impressions of themselves into the 



390 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

surface of the earth, like metallic types into soft clay. 
And as he says : "A gun might as well be expected to 
shoot around a corner, as a ray of light to go out of a 
straight line," so we say, a thistle down might as well 
be expected to stamp an impression of itself into a 
marble top table, as a ray of sunlight to stamp a likeness 
of itself into the surface of the earth. The sum of Dr. 
Clarke's critique is, that after this sun-printing process, 
of his own invention, "plants and flowers spring up, and 
decorate its surface as the most beautiful stamped gar- 
ment does the person of the most sumptuously dressed 
female." And the sum of ours is that his is most like 
of anything to some "sumptuously dressed female" with 
the smallest modicum of brains under her gorgeously 
plumed hat — a thing to be admired for the prettiness of 
its apparel only. It is the. only one we have yet found 
which possesses even this small merit ; all alike have 
gone far astray of the real thing at issue in this verse, 
which is that greatest of all agencies and instrumentali- 
ties for the spread and diffusion of light and knowledge 
upon the world, and among its inhabitants which God, 
in his providence, has yet ordained and caused to be and 
become. "It," which is "turned as clay to the seal," is 
the Printing Press of our own today. 

The figure of "It" was aptly derived from the an- 
cient practice of printing characters and figures in soft 
clay by means of "seals," or types in relief on plates of 
brass or other metal. The soft clay was packed on 
cylinders, the seals arranged in order, and the cylinders, 
clay-covered, turned over upon them. Then, while the 
clay was yet soft, it was cut up in squares, or "tablets." 
Hence the clay tablets that are found in the ruins of an- 
cient cities today. It was from these circumstances that 
the writer of Job derived his figure, under inspiration, 
of course, of the printing press of our own today ; for 
the book, Job, is a Drama of Today, from beginning to 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 391 

end, and includes in its forecasts, figures of all the great 
inventions, discoveries, and advances of the Christian 
Era. And "It," is its forecast and figure of one of the 
greatest, or very greatest of them all," in its bearing and 
influence upon the Christianizing of the civilizations of 
the world. 

And now, having ascertained what is signified by 
"It" — that it is the printing press, as it is today — what 
is meant by : "and they stand as a garment," is no very 
difficult task also, to ascertain. The word, "garment," is 
of frequent use in scripture, both in the literal, and the 
figurative sense of the word. When used figuratively, 
it signifies an outward investiture of things interior and 
spiritual, whether good or evil, as in Psalms : "Who 
covereth thyself with light as with a garment:" And, 
". . . he clothed himself with cursing like as with 
his garment." And in Isaiah, ". . . the garment of 
praise," and ". . . the garments of salvation," 
". . . put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, 
the holy city . . ." Job himself, in chapter 29 is 
made to say, speaking for the Christ, "I put on right- 
eousness, and it clothed me : my judgment was as a robe 
and a diadem." 

In the verse before us now, the clause, "and they 
stand as a garment," has direct relation to "It," which 
"is turned as clay to the seal." What then are "they" 
which stand as a garment, as proceeding directly forth 
from "It?" To make this perfectly clear, we must needs 
go back to the beginning of the Era, and bring up to the 
time of the invention of the printing press. At the ad- 
vent of Christianity among the older religions of the 
world, these all had a noble literature of their own. 
Greece and Rome had clothed their mythologies in a 
garmentation of the highest order of literary excellence, 
though largely prostituted to the celebration of false 
deities and divinities. But the pure, chaste virgin, 



392 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Christianity, walked half naked and shivering in the 
blasts of a wintry world for the lack of a suitable and a 
sufficient literary garmentation ; and this 2 through cent- 
uries of time. Then came the great apostasy from the 
faith and principles of pure, primitive Christianity, and 
the long dark night of the ages drew on, during which 
the penalty for clothing any free thought in words of 
tongue or pen, was death. And it was so that "At the 
end of its first thousand years, Christianity could only 
show Europe at its lowest ebb of civilization, in a state 
which Guizot calls death by the extinction of every fac- 
ulty." 

Then at last "came Faust with his types, and, under 
God, dug Christendom out of its grave." Then dawned 
a new era of light and knowledge and freedom of ex- 
pression, so that the long hidden and naked thoughts 
of men began to come forth and to clothe themselves in 
the sight of God and man, until now, today, the litera- 
tures of the world, thanks to a free press, "stand as a 
garment" for the body of the world's thought — all within 
the meaning of these words of our text. Without knowl- 
edge of the prophetic character and Messianic meaning 
of the book as a whole, and without a perception of the 
orderly development of the Messianic idea into the facts 
of Christian history, bringing us down now to the era 
of the invention of the printing press, this seemingly 
isolated and obscure text, concerning "It," and its put- 
ting forth of things which "stand as a garment," could 
never have been understood, as it never has been rightly 
understood until now. 

Verse 15 : 

"And from the wicked their light is with- 
holden, and the high arm shall be broken." 

Although this verse is consecutively related to the 
preceding one, as growing out of, and resulting from it 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 393 

as effect follows cause, some of the critics omit all com- 
ment upon it, while others say that it refers to burglars 
and other workers under cover of darkness, retiring from 
their work at the coming on of daylight; and so, "their 
high arm is broken, their power for evil gone." This is 
simply nauseating stuff, and we turn from it in disgust 
to the divine and Messianic idea and meaning of the 
text, which is as simple as it is great. It includes all 
the "wicked" everywhere and always, and is without ref- 
erence to any specific form of wickedness, either by 
night or by day. It has many analogous passages in other 
scripture, as in Psalm 97:11: 

"Light is sown for the righteous, and glad- 
ness for the upright in heart." 

Impliedly from this, it is withholden from the 
wicked. And in Proverbs, 13:9: 

"The light of the righteous rejoiceth : but 
the lamp of the wicked shall be put out." 

Jesus himself said, "I am come into this world that 
they which see not might see ; and that they which see 
might be made blind" — their light withholden. And all 
this is testimony of him, his doctrine and its results in 
the world, as foretold in the related clause : "and the 
high arm shall be broken." This concerning the break- 
ing of the "high arm," is that which is also foretold in 
Psalm 2: 

"The kings of the earth set themselves, and 
the rulers take counsel together, against the 
Lord, and against his anointed, saying, 

"Let us break their bands asunder, and cast 
away their cords from us. 

"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; 
thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's 
vessel." 



394 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Many proud empires have been dashed in pieces, 
and many haughty kings dethroned — all included in the 
one "high arm" of our text — in fulfillment of this 
prophecy, and still, today, notwithstanding the vast in- 
crease and spread of light and knowledge in the world, 
"from the wicked their light is withholden," and many 
a high arm remains yet to be broken ; for no proud and 
high oppressor of the poor and lowly ever voluntarily 
lowers his high uplifted arm ; it, and they all, must needs 
"be broken." And now any gale that sweeps from the 
North, the South, the East or the West, may "bring to 
our ears the clash of resounding arms," and the crash 
of the broken "high arm" of kingly power. And this 
must continually be heard, and oftener now than ever 
before, for this is the day of swift things, and. "The world 
rolls Freedom's radiant way" faster than heretofore, 
since the advent of "It," with the electric telegraph for 
its aid and ally, and will do until at last there remains 
no more a high uplifted arm of power and oppression to 
be broken, and the meek alone shall inherit and inhabit 
the earth. 

The next six verses, from the 16th to the 21st, in- 
clusive, seem self-explanatory in the light of what has 
gone before, and we omit comment upon them. But 
with the next succeeding two verses, it is different ; in 
these we read : 

"Hast thou entered into the treasures of 
the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the 
hail, 

"Which I have reserved against the day of 
battle and war?" 

"Which I have reserved against the time of 
trouble, against the day of battle and war?" 

In Revelation, 16:21, read: 

"And there fell upon men a great hail, out 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 395 

of heaven, every stone about the weight of a 
talent : and men blasphemed God because of the 
plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was 
exceeding great." 

The Book of Revelation having been written in 
Greek, it is safe to assume that the Greek talent is al- 
luded to here. The Greek talent weighed 430,000 grains, 
or the equivalent of 61 J^ pounds avoirdupois — -a tre- 
mendous weight for a hail stone. And another strange 
peculiarity of this great hail storm is the close uniform- 
ity in the weight of the stones, every stone, without the 
exception of one, weighing about 61^2 pounds, when re- 
duced to our standard. But there was a commercial, as 
well as a monetary standard of weight, which was called 
a talent; and according to the commercial standard, 
whatever weighed anything at all, whether a pound or 
an ounce, or any fraction of either, was a "talent." What- 
ever had a known specific gravity of its own, was called, 
in the commercial parlance of the times, a talent. 

All that the Revelator saw in his vision which was, 
as supposed, about the year 90 A. D., was of things yet 
to come ; therefore, this great hail out of heaven, falling 
upon men on earth, was something, whatever it was, yet 
to occur in the future of Christian history. Has there 
ever fallen a literal hail storm out of the natural heaven 
on the earth below, such as this is described to be, since 
the records of the Christian Era began to be made? 
Never ! And it is quite safe to say there never will be 
any such. Nature is very far from being so uniform and 
mechanical in her methods as to make all her hail stones 
of exactly the same size or weight, even though they 
weigh more than half a hundred pounds each. 

What then is signified by this figure in this revela- 
tion by figure, of things to come to pass on earth in after 
times? It is the "hail storm" of modern war which be- 



396 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

gan to sweep the world when gunpowder was invented, 
and it, with projectiles of steel, iron and lead took the 
place of the ancient bow and arrow for striking the foe 
at long range, and by which the whole method of war- 
fare was revolutionized. These are the stones, every 
one of which must needs be "about the weight of a 
talent," on the principle that it must have a prescribed 
and specific gravity of its own, or it must weigh just 
about so much, no more and no less, in order to adapt 
it to the carrying force of the explosive behind it, thus 
making a science of projectiles. Hence the scientific ac- 
curacy of the terms descriptive of the same — "Every 
stone about the weight of a talent." And this, whether 
it shall weigh an ounce or a thousand pounds ; it is still 
within the practical meaning of the terms of the text. 

And now for the application of all this to the text 
from Job, now before us ; for still we insist that the Bible 
is its own best interpreter; and moreover, it is of pre- 
cisely the same thing that it treats' here as in Revela- 
tion, only here the language is much more clear and 
explicit, saying of the treasures of the hail, "Which I 
have reserved against the time of trouble, against the 
day of battle and war." What has natural hail from the 
sky overheard to do with the time when the nations of 
the world are in trouble, or with the dav of battle and 
war, when it comes upon them? Evidently enough, 
nothing whatever; yet we have thought it advisable to 
bring other scripture in confirmation of the meaning of 
this, and will bring still other. In Isaiah, chapter 28, 
under the heading of "Christ the sure foundation is 
promised," we read as follows : 

"Judgment also will I lay to the line, and 
righteousness to the plummet : and the hail shall 
.sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters 
shall overflow the hiding place." , 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 397 

Now what has hail, in the literal sense, to do with 
sweeping away "the refuge of lies" to which the wicked 
flee for their fortress? or what "the waters," in the nat- 
ural sense, to do with overflowing their "hiding place?" 
So clearly nothing, that no argument is needed. What 
then is the meaning of the hail sweeping away the refuge 
of lies, as promised here that it should do? It is prom- 
ised as a result of the coining of Christ to the judgment 
of the world ; and one historic illustration of its' prac- 
tical meaning will now be given, while hundreds of 
others might be given without exhausting the list. And 
it shall be taken from the history of our own country. 

When the abolitionists began to work for the extir- 
pation of African slaveiy from the soil of the U. S. A., 
many pretended ministers of the gospel of Christ, which 
is the gospel of freedom, began to preach the divinity 
of the institution, and its everlasting permanence. Then 
at last came the hail storm of civil war, and swept away 
that refuge of lies in which they and their followers had 
so snugly ensconced themselves, and nailed it up with 
scripture. And the "hail" thereof was the same hail 
which sweeps away the refuge of lies in Isaiah, falls on 
men out of heaven in Revelation, and is reserved unto 
the day of battle and war, here in Job. As for the terms 
"snow" and "hail," they are associate and convertible 
terms, as literal snow and hail are associated and con- 
vertible into each other. 

. Verses 24 to 27, inclusive : 

"By what way is the light parted, which 
scattereth the east wind upon the earth? 

"Who hath divided a water-course for the 
overflowing of waters, or a way for the light- 
ning of thunder? 

"To cause it to rain on the earth, where no 
man is ; on the wilderness, wherein there is no 
man; 



398 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; 
and to cause the bud of the tender herb to 
. spring forth ?" 

None of these things, such as "the light," the "east 
wind," the "waters," "the lightning of thunder," and 
"the rain," have any reference to natural phenomena, 
except as figures of spiritual phenomena attending the 
spread of the gospel over and upon the face of the earth. 
In answer to the first question : "By what way is the light 
parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?" 
see Nahum, 1 :3. "The Lord hath his way in the 
whirlwind and in the storm" — that whirlwind of revolu- 
tion in the moral world, out of which the Lord is now 
speaking of Job — and which is to sweep away all ob- 
stacles to the letting in of the Light, while "the east 
wind" is the wind of the Spirit of Truth, which the 
Light "scattereth upon the earth" in the spread and dif- 
fusion of the gospel of the kingdom. 

Then the question: 

"Who hath divided a water-course for the 
overflowing of waters, or a way for the light- 
ning of thunder?" — 

the waters of the Spirit, the lightning of his Truth, and 
the thunder of his Voice — is answered in chapter 28, 
where Job says of God, that "he weigheth the waters by 
measure," and that he has made "a way for the lightning 
of the thunder." 

"To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is," 
and "on the wilderness," "to cause the bud of the tender 
herb to spring forth," signifies the same here as in Isaiah, 
where, under the heading of "The joyful flourishing of 
Christ's kingdom," we read : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 399 

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall 
be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice 
and blossom as the rose." 

Here "the solitary place" is the equivalent of "the 
wilderness wherein there is no man," of our text. Then, 
causing "the bud of the tender herb to spring forth," as 
a result of rain on the wilderness, is made clear as to its 
spiritual meaning in Isaiah, 55:10, 11, where it is writ- 
ten : 

"For as the rain cometh down, and the 
snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, 
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring 
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the 
sower, and bread to the . . . 

"So shall my word be that goeth forth out 
of my mouth : it shall not return unto me void, 
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and 
it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." 

It is then, "the bud of the tender herb" of Truth, 
that is here, under this figure, spoken of as "to spring 
forth" — the truth of that Christ of whom all this is tes- 
timony. And "the wilderness" is that which the world 
was until his coming to make it and the deserts thereof 
to "rejoice and blossom as the rose." And the "rain" on 
that wilderness is "the small rain" and "the great rain 
of his strength," of verse 6 of the next previous chapter, 
while "the overflowing of waters," in the next verse 
previous to these two, is that of the waters of his truth, 
which shall be "Till like a sea of glory, It spreads from 
pole to pole." 

Verse 28 : 

"Hath the rain a father? or who hath be- 
gotten the drops of dew?" 

Here where everything is Messianic in its final 
meaning and application, after passing through the nat- 



400 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

ural figure, it is the rain, and the dew of the spiritual 
heavens that are finally intended — the rain of righteous- 
ness, and the dew of the divine favor coming down "like 
rain upon the mown grass : as showers that water the 
earth," as says the Rsalmist in his more direct compari- 
son of the descent of the Spirit to the dropping; down 
of refreshing moisture from the skies upon the dry and 
thirsty earth. 

Specifically, "the drops of dew" are here the same 
as where Job, in his mournfully eloquent review of his 
former great prosperity, says : 

"My root. was spread out by the waters, and 
the dew lay all night upon my branch." 

God is their Father ; and not Job, who is the Son, 
is the idea sought to be conveyed here. 

Verses 29, 30 : 

"Out of whose womb came the ice? and the 
hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? 

"The waters are hid as with a stone, and 
the face of the deep is frozen." 

The question of verse 29 is answered before it is 
asked, in verse 10 of the foregoing chapter : 

"By the breath of God frost is given: and 
the breadth of the waters is straitened." 

And what is meant by the hiding of the waters "as 
with a stone," and by the face of the deep being "frozen," 
is clearly explained in the 7th chapter of Zechariah, where 
this last of the prophets, save one, is commanded by the 
Lord to speak to the priests and to all the people of the 
Jewish nation, and to say to them : 

"Should ye not hear the words which the 
Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 401 

Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and 
the cities thereof round about her, when men 
inhabited the south and the plain?" 
Also to command them to 

"Execute true judgment, and show mercy 
and compassions every man to his brother: 

"And oppress not the widow, nor the fa- 
therless, the stranger, nor the poor ; and let 
none of you imagine evil against his brother in 
your heart. 

"But they refused to hearken, and pulled 
away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that 
they should not hear. 

"Yea, they made their hearts as an ada- 
mant stone, lest they should hear the law, and 
the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in 
his spirit by the former prophets : therefore 
came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. 

"Therefore it is come to pass, that as he 
cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, 
and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts :" 

So it was that the waters of the Spirit were hid from 
them "as with a stone ;" and the face of the deep was 
frozen — all within the meaning of these words of our 
text. And that God hides his face from nations, as well 
as from individuals, we are told in verse 29 of chapter 
34, where Elihu is made to say : 

"When he giveth quietness, who then can 
make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who 
then can behold him? whether it be done 
against a nation, or against a man only :" 

Lastly, see the Christ's own testimony on the hid- 
ing of the waters as with a stone in Luke, 9:41, 42: 



402 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"And when he was come near, he beheld 
the city, and wept over it, 

"Saying, if thou hadst known, even thou, 
at least in this thy day, the things which belong 
unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from 
thine eyes." 

The figure of the hiding of the waters "as with a 
stone," and as applied to the Jewish nation in this 
prophecy, is derived from the ancient custom of covering 
the mouths of wells with flat stones to hide and protect 
the water ; while that of the frozen face of the deep is 
from the then known circumstance that in those regions 
far from the sun, the sea, on the face of it, is covered 
with ice. This represents the state of the Jewish nation 
at the advent of Christ ; the face of their spiritual deep 
was frozen, and the waters of the Spirit were hid from 
them as the water of a well is hid with a stone. For 
there are alternate allusions to the old and to the new 
dispensations, throughout the address of the Deity to 
Job, out of the whirlwind, and this, of our text, is one 
of the former class. 

Verses 31, 32: 

"Canst thou bind 'the sweet influences of 
Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? 

"Canst thou bring fort Mazzaroth in his 
season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his 
sons?" 

Much futile speculation has been indulged in by 
the schoolmen upon these two verses, all based on the 
preposterous notion that the Lord came in person to ask 
the patriarch of Uz if he really did, or could, control and 
direct the motions of the constellations of the skies 
overhead. Now if Job had been a real person, and pos- 
sessed of only plain, common sense, it still would have 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 403 

been wholly unnecessary to ask him such a question as 
this ; he would never have needed to be rebuked for any 
such a presumption as that. The high reach and vast 
range of the question, itself implies some far greater 
character, with its influence in the affairs of the divine 
government, than any since unheard of patriarch of the 
land of Uz, for its subject. The simple truth of the mat- 
ter is that the writer of the book has here drawn on the 
beliefs and formulas of astro-theology for his illustra- 
tions of the working forces and influences of Messian- 
ism. The like of this did Jesus himself in his teaching. 
For instance, it could not have been otherwise than that 
he knew the story of Jonah coming forth alive after 
three days' and nights' abode in the belly of a whale, to 
be a purely mythical tale, without foundation in any 
literal fact. Yet, as such, it served his purpose pre- 
cisely as well as though it had been an actual event — ■ 
if indeed, it had not been written beforehand to serve 
that same purpose. 

Anciently it was believed, or professed to be be- 
lieved by the astro-theologists, that the cluster of seven 
stars in the constellation or sign Taurus, called Pleiades, 
shed vernally down on the earth some mystical and 
beneficent, or "sweet" influence which enabled them to 
prosper in their undertakings while it lasted. Soon as 
the Pleiades appeared in the sky, in the spring of the 
year, the tiller of the soil prepared to plant his seed, in 
the confident hope and faith of a bountiful crop, while 
the sailor of the sea joyfully trimmed his sails, assured 
of a prosperous voyage; the stars were propitious, they 
thought. And who could bind those sweet and benefi- 
cent influences of Pleiades that they should cease to shed 
themselves down on the earth in their season? 

Here, under the figure of Pleiades, the prophet of 
the Messiah foretells what might be called the vernal 
season of Messianism — when "the bud of the tender 



404 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

herb" of his truth should first begin "to spring forth," 
and to be succeeded by a winter foretold under the fig- 
ure of Arcturus. In th</ firsts chapter of the Book of 
Revelation we read that the Seer beheld in his vision, 
"one like unto the Son of man." And that "he had in 
his right hand seven stars:" And he who held them in 
his hand said : "The seven stars are the angels of the 
seven churches." And what he, the Spirit of Truth, 
says now is that the seven stars of the Book of Revela- 
tion, and the Pleiades of the Book of Job, signify one 
and the same thing. The "angels of the seven churches" 
are, to all intents and purposes, "the sweet influences of 
Pleiades." And this binding of the influences of Pleia- 
des, and this loosing of the bands of Orion, together 
refer to the same things of which the Christ said to 
Peter : 

"And I will give unto thee the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and 
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven." 

Orion stood in astrology for the antithesis of Plei- 
ades ; while their influences were sweet and beneficent, 
his influence was wicked and bad every way. He was 
pictured as a giant with a girdle about his loins ; and 
until this was loosed, he could do no mischief. As taken 
over into Messianic symbology, Orion signifies the same 
as the Satan who, in Revelation 20th, is bound "a thou- 
sand years." Then, after the thousand years are ex- 
pired, "he must be loosed a little season." This is what 
is alluded to in our text as loosing the bands of Orion. 

When the church suffered its great apostasy from 
the true faith of Christ, when the ' v once faithful city" 
had "become an harlot," and the abode of righteousness t 
a lodging place for "murderers," all as foretold by the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 405 

prophet Isaiah, then there was a loosing of "the bands 
of Orion," within the spiritual and Messianic meaning 
of the text before us, and also a binding of "the sweet 
influences of Pleiades ;" for, not until these are bound, 
can the bands of Orion be loosed. "And this, whether 
it is done to a nation, or only to a man." For these high 
poetic formulas, when reduced to their last analysis, con- 
tain things which practically concern the lowliest indi- 
vidual man, as well as the largest communities of men. 
And yet, all that the great scholar and critic, Mr. Mason 
Good, in his "Notes critical and explanatory" — of noth- 
ing, makes of these things is, of Orion, "a correct and 
elegant synecdoche for the winter at large." And that 
"The Pleiades are elegantly opposed to Orion, as the 
vernal renovation of nature is opposed to its wintry de- 
struction ; the mild and open benignity of spring, to th^ 
severe and icy inactivity of winter." 

"Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?" 
refers to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and not as Park- 
hurst supposes, to the Simoon, or heat-wave of the 
desert of Arabia. And it is what might be called the 
twelve signs of. the Messianic zodiac, that is ultimately 
meant ; these were brought forth in their season, first 
as the twelve tribes of Israel, the chosen people of the 
Lord for the preparation of the gospel of the kingdom, 
though themselves were blinded to the divinity of their 
mission in the world. Next, Mazzaroth was brought 
forth in his season upon the new and Messianic heaven 
of the Lord, in the form of the twelve apostles of Christ ; 
for truly, all this is testimony of him and of his work 
in the world, and it is by so regarding it that it becomes 
easy and certain of a correct interpretation. 

"Arcturus with his sons" is that northern constella- 
tion called the "Dipper," and the "Great Bear." Here 
the smaller stars are poetically called "his sons." As 
used in this connection, Arcturus stands for the winter 



406 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

season of the Messianic year. As every person of any 
considerable spiritual experience knows, love has its 
seasons of light and heat, and of darkness and cold. 
This is foretold in a large way in Matthew, 24:12: "And 
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall 
wax cold." It was Spring when he said this; the Pleia- 
des were in the sky ; the bud of the tender herb of Love 
was everywhere shooting forth. But he foresaw and 
knew the coming on of a winter when the love of many 
should wax cold, when Arcturus should be in the as- 
cendant, and should have many sons. And all ot these 
changes of seasons in the spiritual world are under the 
guidance and direction of a Supreme Power, the same 
as are those of the natural world. And here, drama- 
wise, the question is : Who is it, Job, or the Lord ? 
This, Job is made to acknowledge at the end, that it is 
the Lord ; and this, in a clear forecast of the acknowl- 
edgment of the Christ that of himself he had no power 
to do anything; that to God alone belongeth power. 

Verses 33, 34, 35 : 

"Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? 
canst thou set the dominion thereof in the 
earth ? 

"Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, 
that abundance of waters may cover thee? 

"Canst thou send lightnings, that they may 
go, and say unto thee, Here we are?" 

While the question of knowing the "ordinances of 
heaven," and of setting "the dominion thereof in the 
earth," refers primarily to the office and mission of the 
Christ through whom this was to be done spiritually, 
first of all, it refers ultimately to man's attained do- 
minion over the elements and forces of the natural world 
in which he lives, as referred to in the second and the 
third verse of this series. To take up first, the purely 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 



407 




408 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

spiritual phase of these questions, what is said of setting 
the dominion of "the ordinances of heaven" in the earth, 
signifies the same as that written in Isaiah, 42 :4, of the 
work to be accomplished in the world by the Christ, as 
follows : 

"He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till 
he have set judgment in the earth : and the isles 
shall wait for his law." 

Then the question : 

"Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, 
that abundance of. waters may cover thee?" 

has a purely spiritual, and a natural meaning and appli- 
cation. In its first meaning it refers to the power of the 
Christ to call down from heaven an abundance of the 
waters of spiritual refreshing, that they may cover him 
and his work in the world ; this, under the figure of lit- 
erally calling down water from the clouds of the sky 
in abundance for all natural needs and purposes. This 
figure also at the same time is a containant of a prophecy 
of the time to come when man's dominion over Nature 
shall rise to the height of the clouds and enable him to 
bring down an abundance of waters that they may cover 
him and his field at need — that time being now close at 
hand. For the spiritual dominion of the Messiah, and 
the natural dominion of the Man are to keep pace with 
each other while the world endures, or until the kingdom 
of God is fully come, and the will of God is done in 
earth as it is done in heaven. To these ends he must 
have agencies and instruments on the material as well 
as the spiritual side ; and of one of these the next fol- 
lowing verse contains a forecast, as follows : 

"Canst thou send lightnings, that they may 
go, and say unto thee, Here we are?" 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 409 

How very strange it should seem that in that early 
period of time, when nothing could have been farther 
from the thought of man than that of commanding the 
lightnings of the clouds of the sky, and having them 
come down to him and obey his command, and go 
where he should send them, and say what he should tell 
them to say, that the Lord of heaven and earth should 
ask one of the patriarchs of that day and age if he could 
do such things as these — such things as neither he nor 
any other of that day and age ever even thought of as 
ever becoming possible to man. On reflection, it ap- 
pears to us an unthinkable thing that this question was 
ever asked by the Lord of anyone on earth. 

But now in the light of the prophetical character 
of the work in which this strange query is propounded, 
and having observed that in the time-order of its fore- 
shadowed events we are here at the beginning of that 
series of great discoveries and inventions which have 
out-wondered the old and out-worn "Seven wonders of 
the world," the strangeness and the difficulty of it all 
ceases in the light of the proposition that we have here 
in this antique formula of Messianic prophecy a forecast 
of that great institution of our own today, the Electric 
Telegraph. And now the peculiar significance of the 
text in suggesting intelligence to a hitherto unintelligent 
force of nature, making it obedient to man's command, 
rushing away at his bidding to deliver his messages to 
his fellow man, and, repeating them in his own words, 
all becomes clear and intelligible; for "Here we are," is 
the thus concisely stated sum of all the messages of 
these talking lightnings of the text now before us. And 
however upsetting and displacing of all former concep- 
tions of the subject this may be, to everyone at all sensi- 
tive to a shock from the electric battery of Truth, Here 
It Is. 



410 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Verse 36 : 

"Who hath put wisdom in the inward 
parts? or who hath given understanding to the 
heart?" 

This appears on the face of it to be a sudden and 
a wide diversion from the subject of the previous verse 
— from things practical to things theoretical or theo- 
logical. But according to Dr. Clarke, "Mr. Good thinks 
that this verse is a continuation of the subject above, 
relative to the lightnings, and therefore translates thus : 

Who putteth understanding into the vol- 
lies? And who giveth to the shafts discern- 
ment? 

Mr. Good has rightly judged that this verse is a 
continuation of tlie subject above — that is, of the light- 
nings, but is grossly in error in supposing that it refers 
to putting understanding into vollies of electricity, or 
giving discernment to flashes of lightning, neither of 
which possesses aught of understanding or discernment 
of anything whatever — no more than the thunder that 
rolls, or the wind that blows. And if the reader of thjs, 
who has not read that, can believe it, the Septuagint 
version makes this verse read : "Who hath given the 
knowledge of weaving to women ; or the science of em- 
broidery?" This, Dr. Clarke wisely calls "trifling" with 
the subject. And if this is true, what should be thought 
of the Vulgate which renders it : ' "Who hath given 
understanding to the cock ; that it might be able .to dis- 
tinguish and proclaim the watches of the night." 

All of this, together with much other worse than 
worthless, because misleading, speculation upon this 
subject, has arisen primarily from that total misconcep- 
tion of the fundamental character of the entire piece of 
work of which this is a part, which makes of it history, 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 411 

instead of what it really is, prophecy; and immediately 
form a wrong understanding of the meaning of the word, 
"lightnings," as used in this connection, making it to 
mean the free electric currents of the atmosphere at 
large, instead of what it really means, the generated, 
controlled and directed lightnings of the electric tele- 
graph system of our own today. 

And now the aptness and the import of the query 
which immediately follows : "Who hath put wisdom 
in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding 
to the heart?" become at once apparent — wisdom and 
understanding to devise and do so wonderful a thing as 
this. And there is designed to be but one answer to 
this : It is God. Hence the high moral of the entire 
text for our delectation is that all of the great and won- 
derful works of man in this time-period of the prophet's 
vision of Today, such as the printing press, the electric 
telegraph, with many others, upon all of which, man so 
greatly prides himself, are the inspired and directed 
works of God for his own use and purpose in the world, 
and therefore, fit and worthy subjects of prophecy. 

Verses 37, 38 : 

"Who can number the clouds in wisdom? 
or who can stay the bottles of heaven, 

"When the dust groweth into hardness, 
and the clods cleave fast together?" 

All of the critics agree in thinking that this refers 
solely to the facts and phenomena of nature, such as 
clouds, dust, clods, and rain-fall ; whereas these things 
are referred to and used here as correspondences in na- 
ture to things in the divine government of mankind, and 
are Messianic in their final meaning and application. 
The "clouds" are the dark, unilluminated letter of the 
Word of God, until the Spirit of Truth shines through 
them and numbers them in wisdom, within the. meaning 



412 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

of these words of the text. This text itself is one of 
those "clouds ;" the entire Old Testament was all com- 
pact of such clouds until he came, of whom it is all tes- 
timony, and showed where and how it testified of him, 
and so numbered them in wisdom; for the word "num- 
ber," here signifies more than to count them — to il- 
luminate them in their order and function. 

The parables of the Christ himself were such clouds 
as are indicated here, each one of them being made up 
of lesser clouds ; and his exposition of their meaning, 
part by part, was that numbering of the clouds in wis- 
dom, of which it is asked here, Who can do it? For one 
practical illustration of what is meant here by number- 
ing the clouds in wisdom, take his orderly and consecu- 
tive exposition of his own parable of the Sower: "Be- 
hold, a sower went forth to sow." This was cloud No. 
1. "And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way- 
side, and the fowls came and devoured them up." This 
was cloud No. 2. "Some fell upon stony places, where 
they had not much earth : and forthwith they sprung 
up, because they had no deepness of earth : And when 
the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they 
had no root, they withered away." This was cloud No. 3. 
"And some fell among thorns ; and the thorns sprung up 
and choked them." This was cloud No. 4. "But others 
fell into good ground, and brought fruit, some an hun- 
dredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold." This was 
cloud No. 5. Then to his disciple he expounded his par- 
able, point by point, cleared up its obscure meaning, 
cloud by cloud, until it was all clear. And so he an- 
swered the question of this ancient and prophetic text : 
"Who can number the clouds in wisdom?" In the 
clause, "or who can stay the bottles of heaven," the 
figure is from the Oriental custom of carrying water in 
bottles made of skins of animals, when journeying 
across the waterless desert ; and the figure itself is of the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB ' 413 

refreshings from on high, when in a period of spiritual 
drought "the dust" of our mortal state "groweth into 
hardness," and of our earthy nature, "the clods cleave 
fast together." Then who can turn down "the bottles 
of heaven" upon us save him who "knoweth our frame," 
and "remembereth we are dust?" 

Droughts of the inner and spiritual world, as well 
as those of the outer and natural one, are recognized in 
other scripture as occurring even to the best and most 
spiritually minded of men, ' notably in Isaiah, 58:11, 
where it is written of him who draws out his soul "to 
the hungry," and satisfies "the afflicted soul :" 

"And the Lord shall guide thee continually, 
and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat 
thy bones : and thou shalt be like a watered 
garden, and like a spring of water, whose wa- 
ters fail not." 

And here with this figure, the growing of the dust 
into hardness, and the cleaving of the clods fast together, 
closes the long series of figures drawn from the inani- 
mate creation, as light and darkness, snow and hail, 
lightning and thunder, suns arid stars, floods and 
droughts, all of which are correspondences of things nat- 
ural to things spiritual and pertaining to the divine gov- 
ernment ; and another series of images, derived now 
exclusively from the animal kingdom, succeeds and con- 
tinues to the end of the poem proper. All of these fig- 
ures from the animal kingdom, beginning with the lion, 
and ending with the leviathan, like those from inani- 
mate nature, are of things Messianic, and of their prac- 
tical outcome in the history of the Christian Era from 
its commencement, down to our own today. 

The last three verses of this chapter treats of the 
lion and the young lions, and the raven ; they should 
have been placed at the beginning of the next chapter, 



414 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

which is wholly made up of figures from the animal 
kingdom, instead of at the end of this chapter, which is 
of another class of figures, thus mixing the classes which 
should have been separately chaptered. This failure to 
recognize the proper divisions of the subject, while it 
mars the literary symmetry of the work, does not hinder 
interpretation, and we proceed to quote and interpret 
these three misplaced verses. 

Verse 39 : 

"Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or 
fill the appetite of the young lions, 

Verse 40 : 

"When they couch in their dens, and abide 
in the covert to lie in wait? 

Verse 41 : 

"Who provideth for the raven his food? 
when his young ones cry unto God, they wan- 
der for lack of meat." 

It is hard for the rational mind to imagine that the 
Lord in person asked Job if he would take on the char- 
acter and disposition of a lion, and go into the jungle 
and search for prey for his young ones, while they 
waited in their dens for him to come back with food for 
them to eat. In truth, it is simply inconceivable that 
this was ever actually asked of Job by the Lord ; such 
a conception violates all rational probability, and ranks 
us intellectually with the small school boy who believes 
everything he reads just as it reads; it must be so, be- 
cause it says so in the book. On the other hand, and 
in the light of the Messianic Idea of the book as a whole, 
this otherwise impossible passage thereof becomes cred- 
ible and understandable. We have only to turn to the 
10th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, 
and read there the account of the Christ, of whom all 
this is testimony, in its way, sending forth his disciples 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 415 

into the moral jungles of the world, "as sheep in the 
midst of wolves," exposing them to become their prey ; 
then, to make the necessary allowance for the difference 
in the terms, "lions," and "wolves"- — one in the wording 
of prophecy, and the other, in that of its fulfilling his- 
tory — and further, for the necessarily varying phrases 
of hunting the prey for the lion, and sending it forth as 
sheep in the midst of wolves — each practically amount- 
ing to the same thing as the other. Then it becomes 
clear, both as to who this "Job" is, to whom, in a dra- 
matic formula, the Lord addresses the question : "Wilt 
thou hunt the prey for the lion?" — : that it is the Christ 
in prophecy, sending forth his disciples to become a pfey 
to the wild beasts of the spiritual wilderness of the 
world, and also precisely what is here meant by hunting 
the prey for the lion. 

Then for what is meant by filling "the appetite of 
the young lions," read the 21st verse of this 10th chapter 
of Matthew, as follows : 

"x\nd the brother shall deliver up the 
brother to death, and the father the child : and 
the children shall rise up against their parents, 
and cause them to be put to death." 

These brothers of one family, who deliver each other 
up to death, and these children who cause their own 
parents to be put to death, are "the young lions" whose 
appetite for slaughter is prophetically sated in the text 
before us. And it, being on his account, and for his sake, 
who said this, that this slaughter of his people was to 
be perpetrated, it is here prophetically and poetically im- 
puted to him, as hunting the prey for the lion, and fill- 
ing the appetite of the young lions. Other scripture 
than this also gives the name, "lion," or "lions" to cruel 
and blood-thirsty men. The Psalmist, in Psalm 57:4, 
says : 



41G THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"My soul is among lions; and I lie even 
among them that are set on fire, even the sons 
of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, 
and their tongue a sharp sword." 
Even such as these, are "the lion" and "the young 
lions" of this at least equally great poet and prophet 
with the psalmist ; their teeth are spears and arrows, 
and their tongues a sharp sword. And in verse 16, chap- 
ter 10, we have seen that Job himself, in his grievous 
complaint to God, says : 

"For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a 
fierce lion : and again thou shewest thyself mar- 
vellous upon me." 

And it was shown there that this represents, first, 
the fierce persecution of the early Christians by some 
of the emperors of Rome, hunting them as a fierce lion 
hunts his prey to destroy it • and then, that "again thou 
shewest thyself marvellous upon me," stands for the 
exemption from persecution which they enjoyed in great 
peace under the rule of other emperors of the same em- 
pire. This is now brought again to notice to assist us 
in showing what is meant by these words of the Lord to 
Job: "Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion?" — that the 
"lion" is a compact figure for all the fierce and cruel 
persecutors of the people of Christ, and that they them- 
selves are "the prey." 

"Who provideth for the raven his food? when his 
young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat," 
is an associated figure with that of the lion. The raven 
is not in the strictest sense a bird of prey, not being pro- 
vided with the hooked beak and crooked talons of the 
eagle, but is a scavenger of the, remains of such creatures 
as it finds dead and sufficiently rotten for its purpose. 
No sooner are the young of the raven able barely to fly 
a short distance than they are left to croak and cry for 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 417 

food, and to "wander for lack of meat." Yet "your 
heavenly Father feedeth them," as it is written in Mat- 
thew, 6 :26, and in Psalm 147 :9, "He giveth to the beast 
his food, and to the young ravens which cry." 

Here, the raven and his brood are, in figure, those 
black spectres which flitted here and there through the 
sky of the new, Messianic heaven in the shape of false 
prophets and teachers, croaking their licentious doctrine 
of a higher liberty to indulge more freely in the lowest 
forms of sensualism than the followers of Christ per- 
mitted — these things having died out of their hearts and 
lives — and on these dead and rotten things, discarded 
and sloughed off by the new man in Christ, these feasted 
to the full, and croaked their pernicious doctrine that 
this was the true liberty wherewith Christ had made 
them free. Their "young ones" cried unto God, and for 
"lack of meat," wandered in by and forbidden ways 
where carrion might be found ; for even for such as 
these, God provided food. 

And it is of such as these that the prophet Hosea 
writes of old : 

"They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; 
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they 
shall eat unclean things in Assyria." 

Then Jude, with that diversity of imagery of the 
same things so notable in scripture, calls them "wander- 
ing stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness 
forever." 



CHAPTER XUV. 

The Whirlwind, Continued, With Representative Figures 
From Animal Kingdom. (Job xxxix.) 

Here in this chapter, together with the two succeed- 
ing chapters, it is, where, as noted before, "Nature of- 
fers all her creatures to him — the poet — as a picture lan- 
guage. Being used as a type, a second wonderful value 
appears in the object, far better than its old value." And 
"in every word he speaks he rides on them as the horses 
of thought." These figures of the great poet and 
prophet of the Messiah, and his work in the world, all 
of them from the animal kingdom, as they are, have rid- 
den over us, as it were, for some thousands of years, 
seeming to defy us to catch and tame them, or to inter- 
pret them, and now it is high time that we should mount 
up with their maker and with him ride on them as the 
horses of his thought, to the goal of a sane and just con- 
clusion as to what they all signify. 

The first thing to be noted is that this long series 
of animal figures is given on a graduated scale, accord- 
ing to the size and immensity of the power of the vari- 
ous animals named and described. Beginning with the 
lion, it leads up through several lesser figures to the 
horse, the unicorn, the huge bulk of the behemoth, and 
ends with the "Hugest of beasts that swim the ocean 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 419 

stream," the great leviathan, the description of "whom," 
as he is called in the 104th Psalm, here occupies the 
whole of the 41st chapter, which is one of the longest 
chapters of the book. 

This gradual ascent of the scale of images from 
lesser to greater, and ending with the greatest, is itself 
of great interest to the interpreter as representing the 
gradual development of Messianism from small begin- 
nings to great endings in vastly improved social and 
industrial conditions, religious and political revolutions 
for the emancipation of mankind from the bondage of 
superstition and slavery, great inventions of science, 
immense advances in literature and the arts, all of these 
are foreshadowed in this series of figures, and in the 
order of their actual occurrence in history. Continuing 
from the three last verses of the preceding chapter, the 
Lord now asks Job the questions which follow in the 
first four verses of this chapter: 

"Knowest thou the time when the wild 
goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou 
mark when the hinds do calve? 

"Canst thou number the months that they 
fulfill? or knowest thou the time when they 
bring forth? 

"They bow themselves, they bring forth 
their young ones, they cast out their sorrows. 

"Their young ones are in good liking, they 
grow up with corn ; they go forth, and return 
not unto them." 

The first thing we note here is that the "goats" are 
not the domesticated animals of that name, not the tame 
goats of the field or fold, but "the wild goats of the 
rock." Always within the church there have been goats 
in sheep's clothing, as well as wolves ; and the distin- 
guishing trait of the goat character is lasciviousness. 



420 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block 
before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto 
idols, and to commit fornication"~--was a "goat," within 
the meaning of the word as used here. In a word, "the 
wild goats of the rock" are the teachers and promoters 
of false religions in the church, with concupiscence for 
their inspiration. They are called wild goats of the rock, 
in a figure derived from the habitat of the wild goat in 
the wildernesses among the rocks, and which signifies 
those who go astray, and lead astray from the "green 
pastures," and from "beside the still waters" of plenty 
and. peace, into the wilderness where jagged rocks are 
their bed, and roaring torrents of tumultuous passions 
take the place of the still waters of peace. 

Of such, were the Balaamites, and the Nicolaitanes 
of the churches of Pergamos and Ephesus in early 
Christian history. And of such are all those who today 
teach passion for principle, and license for liberty, in the 
name and under the sanction of religion. In our own 
land at the present time, a conspicuous example and il- 
lustration of Wild Goatism is seen in what is called 
"The Church of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ." 
The" "hinds" here mentioned in connection with the wild 
goats, are their associate and companion figure of evils 
forecast, as to infest the church, though of a smoother 
and a more softly seductive form. The hind is the fe- 
male of the red deer species. She is of a milder type of 
organization, and without the strong combative and 
butting proclivities of the goat. Here, she is a type of 
the seducer by whatever appeals to the sensuous imag- 
inations of men, especially the blandishments of ablown 
oratory; for this, see Genesis, 49:21, where Jacob, in 
casting the horoscope of the future of his twelve sons, 
comes to Naphtali and says: "Naphtali is a hind let 
loose : he giveth goodly words." Such are "the hinds" 
of our text ; they are "let loose" of all restraints of the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 421 

gospel of self-denial, and run to and fro in the earth, giv- 
ing "goodly words" in support of their pernicious doc- 
trines. 

In further pursuance of this subject, see Psalm 29:9: 

"The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds 
to calve, and discovereth the forests . . ." 

Can this be supposed to refer to the bringing forth 
of their young by the females of a species of wild ani- 
mals called "hinds" — except in a figure of something of 
greater import than this? Is it not this that is here sig- 
nified : that the coming of the Word of God to the world, 
in his Christ, should also become an occasion for the 
coming of many false Christs and false prophets, such as 
he himself said should come? Then, can it be believed 
that the Lord here questions Job as to his knowledge of 
the period of gestation of the wild goats and the hinds — 
except in a figure of something greater than this, in it- 
self considered? Of what possible significance could it 
be to Job, or to us who read it, that in bringing forth 
their young* they "bow themselves" and "cast out their 
sorrows?" 

Or what light does it shed on the problem of this 
most mysterious of books to learn that the "young ones" 
of the wild goats and the hinds are "in good liking," or 
thrifty, and that they "grow up with corn," and then 
"go forth" and "return not unto them," their sires and 
dams? This single word, "corn," should of itself sug- 
gest that there is a figurative meaning* in it all ; for 
neither corn nor grain of any kind grows where the wild 
goats of the rock, and the hinds of the forest dwell. And 
what are all these circumstances worth, in themselves 
alone considered, as mere literal facts of natural history, 
that the Lord of heaven and earth should come in a 
whirlwind to recapitulate them for the special edifica- 
tion of one of the patriarchs of the land of Uz in the an- 



422 THT NEW BOOK OF JOB 

cient days, and for our instruction in these latter days? 

On the other hand, when we come to know and 
understand that these goats of the rock, and hinds of the 
forest, together with their offspring, are men, and the 
sons and daughters of men, and are those false prophets 
and false Christs which he prophesied should rise, then 
these questions as to when they shall bring forth, and 
as to numbering "the months that they fulfill," become 
exceedingly pertinent, as pertaining to the times of their 
rising, and to the times that they should fulfill. Then 
the answer to these questions of the Lord to Job are 
seen to have been answered by him of whom all this is 
testimony, and that, negatively : or, I know them not ; 
for when he prophesied these things, and other things 
in connection with them, he added that of the day and 
hour when these things should come to pass, "knoweth no 
man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the 
Son, but the Father." And again, to his disciples, after 
his resurrection when they ask him if at this time he 
would restore again the kingdom of Israel : "It is not for 
you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father 
hath put in his own power." And these times and sea- 
sons of which the Lord asks Job if he knows or can 
know them, are a part of those of which the Christ said 
to know them was in the power alone of the Father. 
Therefore it is that these, together with all the interro- 
gations of the entire series, are purposely so framed as 
to imply a negative answer; the answer is No, to them 
all. For although this is the Christ, to whom all power 
in heaven and earth was given, it was not his own, as 
on his own testimony, of himself, he did, and could do 
nothing. And this is the point of them all — that to God 
alone, power belongs. 

Now it would be a comparatively easy thing for 
anyone of the most ordinary intelligence, living in that 
land and time, to learn and to know when the wild goats 



THT NEW BOOK OF JOB 423 

of the rock, and the hinds of the field bring forth their 
young, and even to "number the months that they ful- 
fill." How then could such simple things as these be 
made one of the supreme tests of the knowledge and 
understanding of so great a man as Job? And whether 
he knew them, or not, what bearing could the answer 
have upon the crucial question at issue before this high 
court of judicial inquest, with great Satan for prose- 
cutor in chief, and the Lord of heaven and earth for 
Judge, and which question is whether the prisoner at the 
bar, Job, is a false-hearted hypocrite, as Satan says he 
is, or a perfect and an upright man before the Lord, as 
the Lord says he is — in the prologue, in anticipation of 
his final judgment. 

The case in brief, is this : The prosecutor in chief, 
Satan, has placed his charge against Job before the 
Lord, and proposed a test of his integrity — to take all of 
his great wealth from him; and that failing, to touch 
his flesh and his bone, and he will then curse God to his 
face, he says. The tests are made, and Job is on trial; 
three false witnesses testify against him, and he makes 
an eloquent plea in his own defense. At last the Su- 
preme Judge himself has him under a cross-examination, 
and among many other test questions of his wisdom and 
knowledge, now and here he asks him, so the critics all 
tell us, if he knows the time of the year when wild goats 
and hinds bring forth their kids and calves ; and further, 
if he is familiar with their periods of gestation, or how 
long they go with young until they give them birth. 

Then the Lord, according to the wise and learned, 
treats the court, consisting of no less great personages 
than himself, Satan, and the Sons of God, as though the 
salvation of a world were at stake on the issue of this 
stupendous trial, which it was, to a dissertation on the 
way wild goats and equally wild hinds "bow them- 
selves" and "cast out their sorrows" when "they bring 



424 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

forth their young ones," and still further, on how thrifty 
they are as "they grow up with corn," in a country 
where no corn ever grew, and how when they are 
weaned they leave their dams and never come back to 
them again. Now to an unprejudiced spectator of this 
great trial scene, all of this would seem a quite super- 
fluous piece of information and wholly irrelevant to the 
question at issue- — whether God's greatest man was a 
hypocrite in his pretended devotion to the Most High, 
or as honest and upright of heart as he was perfect and 
unspotted in his outward life and conduct. And so they 
would be, were this an account of real and actual cir- 
cumstances. 

But when we come to know and understand who 
"Job" is, or whom he represents — that it is the Christ; 
and that his trial is the trial of a representative, and not 
of a real person, and that the wild goats of the "rock," 
and the "hinds" introduced into the scene of this repre- 
sentative trial are, in figure, the teachers and promoters 
of those phases of a false Messianism which are now a 
matter of record on the pages of Christian history, that 
while the Christ himself foretold their coming on the 
now historic scene, he himself never claimed to know 
the "times and the seasons" of their coming, then these 
questions : "Knowest thou the time when the wild goats 
of the rock bring forth?" and the same as to the bring- 
ing forth of the hinds, become exceedingly pertinent 
questions. Then the information that "They bow them- 
selves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out 
their sorrows," is very far from superfluous, signifying, 
as it does, their professed allegiance to Christ as his 
humble servants, and then, the birth throes of false re- 
ligions, which never come into the world without more 
or less of pain and labor. Then, the instruction of the 
Judge, that "Their young ones are in good liking, they 
grow up with corn ; they go forth, and return not unto 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 425 

them," becomes instructive indeed ; "their young ones" 
signifying their converts to their false faith ; and their 
"good liking," their rapid and thrifty growth under the 
tuition of their teachers, which is the "corn" with which 
they are said to "grow up." the word corn being used 
here in the symbolical sense, including their whole men- 
tal and moral, or immoral pabulum. 

On the other hand, of what smallest possible signifi- 
cance, or what bearing could it have on the great ques- 
tion at issue before this mightiest of tribunals, whether 
or not the young ones of wild goats and red deers come 
back to them after they have once gone away from 
them? Is it not apparent then, that these circum- 
stances, so insignificant in themselves as literal facts, 
and as such, so irrelevant to the argument, require some 
kind of interpretation in order to give them a signifi- 
cance befitting the greatness of the occasion, and a clear 
relevance to the argument for and against the prisoner 
at the bar in the chancery of high heaven? Plainly 
enough, it is so. 

What then is that significance and relevancy which, 
in and of itself, the mere circumstance of the going forth 
of the young- ones of the wild goats and the hinds, to 
"return not unto them," so clearly lacks? As figures of 
the converts to the false religions which have from the 
beginning, and still do, infest the church of Christ, the 
going forth of these children of the rocks and forests to 
return not again to them, signifies the constant apos- 
tasies from these false faiths, and which apostasies are 
always final, on the part of their converts. Once having 
gone forth from, and gotten from under the spell of the 
chief bleating Billies of the flock, they "return not unto 
them." Conversions to, and apostasies from these false 
religions, in the long run always do, and always will bal- 
ance each other, and so are providentially estopped from 
taking and filling the world. Great then, very great is 



426 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB . 

the significance of the going forth of the "young ones" 
of the wild goats of the rock, and the hinds, to return 
not back unto them, and relevant indeed to the whole 
argument, which is for the final triumph of Messianism 
over all its false friends, who are its worst foes. 

So much time and space have been given to the 
exposition of this double and complex figure of the goats 
and hinds, partly because the way and manner in which 
it has been treated hitherto, is one of the most conspicu- 
ous examples of the belittling and degrading concepts 
of the literalists to be found in any of the commentaries, 
all based, as they are, on the false hypothesis that Job 
was a real person, and that, as a fitting' outcome of that 
false hypothesis, here the Lord is arguing with him, out 
of a whirlwind, to convince him of a fact which he would 
have himself known, had he been a real person, which 
he never was, namely : that the Lord knows more about 
the ways and habits of the wild goat and the red deer 
than he does. And this is all we learn of the subject 
from "our study of the commentaries, which have not 
helped but hindered us by taking away the key of knowl- 
edge," which is the Messianic Idea of it all. 

The next figure of the series is a single figure, and 
although it also is from the wilderness, after our long 
and hard siege of the rocky fortress of the wild goat and 
hind-figure, this one will be comparatively easy of inter- 
pretation, and clear in application. It is of the Wild Ass. 

Verse 5 : 

"Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or 
who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?" 

Verse 6: 

"Whose house I have made the wilderness, 
and the barren land his dwellings," 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 427 

Verse 7: 

"He scorneth the multitude of the city, 
neither regardeth he the crying of the driver." 

Verse 8 : 

"The range of the mountains is his pasture, 
and he searcheth after every green thing." 

This is beautiful, but the question at once arises on 
reading the first verse of the series, how came the wild 
ass, born in absolute freedom, wholly untamable, and 
never under the dominion of man, dwelling always in 
the wildest and most inaccessible places to men, and 
fleeing with the swiftness of the wind at the first sight 
of a human being, ever to have any "bands" to be 
"loosed?" What bands are these, and how are they 
loosed, within the figurative meaning of these words of 
the text, since it is seen at the first glance that they can- 
not be accepted or understood in any literal sense? 

These are questions which answer themselves, as 
soon as it is seen and understood what the animal in 
question, as a whole, is a figure of; then these particu- 
lars, together with all the others as to his haunts, his 
habits, his disposition, and lastly, his preferred diet, all 
readily adjust themselves to the meaning of the figure as 
a whole. Of what, then, is the wild ass a whole figure? 
It is, in a general scope of application, that innate pro- 
clivity for freedom, in human nature, and which, when 
not regulated by reason, nor restrained by right, rushes 
madly into the wilderness of all confusion and disorder. 
In society, it is libertinism ; in government, anarchy ; 
destructive of the interests of mankind, which require 
more or less of restraint of all natural impulses for their 
safeguarding. And now it at once becomes clear as to 
what is signified by "Whose house I have made the wil- 
derness, and the barren land his dwellings." For what 



428 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

does it signify, as a simple fact of natural history, that 
the wild ass makes the wilderness his home, and prefers 
the barren desert for his dwelling place, that it should 
be made a subject of special comment by the Lord, along 
with other particulars as to his habits and preferences? 
Must there not necessarily be contained within these 
carefully described circumstances a deeper meaning than 
appears on the surface of them, to make them worthy of 
the occasion, and of the Speaker? And if this is not it, 
then what is it? But we ask for no better assurance than 
we have, that this is it. 

We have said that in general, including all times 
of. history and states of mankind, the things above men- 
tioned are what is signified by this figure as a whole, 
and in its particulars. Nevertheless, it is specific in its 
application to the facts and phenomena of Christian his- 
tory ; for Christianity is pre-eminently the cult of Free- 
dom ; and, as such, peculiarly and especially open and 
susceptible to abuse of its liberty, as all best things are 
liable to the worst abuses, liberty, along with the rest. 
And so it was, that just as when the sun of Nature rises 
in the morning to call the birds from their bowers, and 
the bees from their hives, and sets them at liberty to go 
forth from their some time prison house of darkness into 
the open and lighted fields in pursuit of their happy and 
useful occupations, and at the same time calls forth nox- 
ious insects and poisonous reptiles from their holes and 
dens to go abroad in pursuit of their harmful and per- 
nicious occupation also — for there can be no discrimina- 
tion against any that dwell under its rays — so it was at 
the rising of the "Sun of Righteousness" to shed its 
beneficent and liberating rays upon the world, after its 
long, dark night of ignorance, superstition and bondage 
to hoary traditions, ceremonies and usages. Previous to 
this great sunburst of light upon a long darkened world, 
the innate, and in itself, flawless instinct of liberty, had 



THE NETW BOOK OF JOB 429 

always been sternly suppressed, and held in bondage to 
the. authority of the rulers. And this was how "the wild 
ass," described in our text, came to have "bands" to be 
"loosed." . 

But now, under the liberal provisions of the world- 
wide Emancipation Proclamation of the Gospel of Christ 
— which could make no discrimination betwixt those 
who would use its privileges wisely, and those who 
would abuse them — no more than the sun which shines 
alike "on the evil and on the good," or the rain which 
falls impartially "on the just and on the unjust" — there 
was a loosing of "the bands of the wild ass," such as the 
world had never before seen — all within the prophetic 
meaning and scope of these words of the text. And 
there was such a wild rush into mad extremes of inter- 
pretation and application of the liberal provisions and 
laws of the new Constitution of Liberty, that before a 
century had passed there were sects within the church 
which openly preached, and practiced, the right and 
privilege of committing fornication, as sanctioned in the 
by-laws of the new constitution. Of such, were the 
Nicolaitines, the Balaamites, and the Jezebelites, or be- 
lievers in, and practical followers of Jezebel, the idol- 
atrous and adulterous queen of ancient Israel, who 
taught their children to commit fornication and other 
abominations. Last of all, the "Mother Church" itself 
placed such a liberal interpretation upon, and made so 
free an application of the words of Christ to Peter, con- 
cerning binding and loosing of things on earth and in 
heaven that it deemed itself at liberty and free to de- 
stroy the lives of all who, under its dominion, dared to 
think for themselves, and to "judge of themselves the 
things that are right" — even as their spiritual head, the 
Christ had enjoined upon them to do, and even to seal 
the spiritual doom of all dissenters from its teaching 
and authority. This last assumption was Wild Ass-Ism 



430 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

in its wildest extreme, and in its widest scope, and high- 
est possible range. But then, we have seen in the last 
verse of this series, that "The range of the mountains is 
his pasture," or that he aspires to the highest things 
for his maintenance. 

Verse 7, says : 

"He scorneth the multitude of the city, 
neither regardeth he the crying of the driver." 

From the literal point of view, the wild ass never 
sees a city, nor knows of the existence of any such a 
thing as a city, with its multitude of people within its 
walls. Neither does he ever hear the "crying of the 
driver," either to regard or to disregard it ; his house 
is the wilderness, far from the haunts of men, where he 
seldom, if ever, sees a human being, except at a distance 
which he immediately proceeds to widen as fast and far 
as possible. The language of the text, like that of all 
the others of the series, is purely figurative, and must 
be referred to the subject of the figure for its explica- 
tion. The "multitude of the city," here signifies the 
Mass of Mankind — of which, the true subject of the 
sketch is a thorough scorner. And whether it is congre- 
gated in the city of the Church or the State, he scorns 
it alike in either. In religion, he is an infidel; and in 
politics, an anarchist ; and in society, a libertine, scorn- 
ing its conventions and proprieties as utterly as he does 
law and gospel. His "bands" having been "loosed," he 
goes forth a "Free Lover," a "Free Thinker," and all 
round free bandit of society, law and religion. 

As to the Church, he "sitteth in the seat of the 
scornful" and contemplates it as a museum of the fos- 
silized remains of ancient superstitions. As to the State, 
It is an organized band of robbers mainly bent on de- 
priving us all of what little liberty there is left to us in 
these degenerate times. And as to Society, It is every- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 431 

where composed of gibbering idiots who have no idea oi 
anything like freedom, and are content to live and die 
in a degrading slavery to oppressive laws and customs. 
In short, he is a pessimist of the most pronounced type, 
who looks on the dark side of the picture and sees the 
world all wrong, and everything in it going to "the dem- 
nition bow-wows," as he would say if he happened to be 
an Englishman. Reversing the sentiment of that cheer- 
ful English bard who sang in optimistic strain, "In err- 
ing Reason's spite — one truth remains: Whatever is, is 
right" — our W. A. looks down from his lofty speculative 
height of vision on a lost and ruined world, and sees 
that no truth remains ; and the burden of his doleful and 
pessimistic song is always this : "Whatever is, 
is wrong !" ' And "O cursed spite ! that ever I was born 
to set it right." For, posing as a "Reformer," of the 
wild-eyed and long-maned species, and who never re- 
forms anything, least of all, himself, he wildly imagines 
that his mission in and to the world is to reform it, and 
so to correct all the mistakes of its Maker. And if all 
the world were to submit it to him to furnish plans and 
specifications for building it over, and making it a vastly 
better world to live in than it now is, they would be, to 
banish the church, abolish the state, and turn society 
loose, with every one of its members free to do "just as 
he durn pleases," without let or hindrance from any law, 
as one or more of him has been heard to say, and "In 
six weeks' time everybody would be virtuous and 
happy," with the Trillennium of Freedom brightly 
dawned. 

In his capacity as an Infidel, the W. A. does not be- 
lieve in a God — mainly for the reason that "the multi- 
tude of the city" does so believe. "He scorneth the mul- 
titude of the city" with all its works and ways and with 
all its most cherished faiths and beliefs, as errors and 
delusions of "undeveloped minds" — undeveloped as yet, 



432 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

up to the high degree of wild-assism to which he has 
attained, owing to the all exceeding altitude of his pas- 
ture, with its high, ethereal products. In fact, it is only 
necessary that a sufficient number of other people 
should believe and cherish a faith of any kind, to insure 
his contempt for it — so thoroughly does he scorn "the 
multitude of the city," with all its modes of living, and 
ways of thinking. 

The Bible is "a pack of old wives' fables," not be- 
cause he has unpacked it and found it to be so, but be- 
cause so many of the antediluvian old fossils of today 
still believe it to be the Word of God. And among the 
latest and loudest of his ululations from the mountain 
tops down to the world below, is his announcement and 
pronunciatum that "Christianity is a religion fit only for 
children." As an anarchist, his ultimatum of defiance 
is that all governments are instituted for the sole benefit 
of the governors ; and not in the least for the good of the 
governed; and that he, for one, shall defy them to the 
end, though that end may be a prison cell' or the gallows. 
What use has a wild ass, for government of any kind, in 
any way? And if he, creation's model and exemplar of 
Freedom, has no use nor regard for government, social, 
civic, or religious, what use or regard need anyone else 
have for it? 

This brings us within the implications of the second 
and last clause of the verse — "neither regardeth he the 
crying of the driver.'' Here the word, "driver," signi- 
fies and includes all who wield and exercise control, au- 
thority, or guidance in the affairs of mankind, or in the 
capacity of teachers or instructors, speak and act as 
those "having authority, and not as the scribes," as did 
Jesus, while "the crying of the driver," is the putting 
forth of the voice of the director, either in the way of 
instruction or of command, or of both in one. "Doth not 
wisdom cry ?-- and -understanding put forth her voice?" 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 433 

And, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye 
love one another ; . . " together illustrate what is 

here meant by "the crying of the driver." Then, as to 
who are meant, and included among those who regard it 
not, it is illustrated in a large way in Psalm 2, where, 
under the heading of "The kingdom of Christ," we read: 

"The kings of the earth set themselves, 
and the rulers take counsel together, against 
the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, 

"Let us break their bands asunder, and 
cast away their cords from us." 

The terms of the text itself include all, both great 
and small, who hear not, or hearing, heed not, the voice 
of that "driver" whose yoke is easy, and whose burden 
is light — since this is all testimony of him, and his rule 
in the earth, including here in the figure of the wild ass 
of the wilderness, scorning the multitude of the city, and 
regarding not the crying of the driver, all those who 
scorn the multitude of Zion, "beautiful Zion ! city of 
our God !" and regarding not the voice of him who would 
fain direct them to its walls, rush wildly, madly, to their 
preferred place of abode, the wilderness of sin. 

Verse 8: 

"The range of the mountains is his pas- 
ture, and he searcheth after every green thing." 

Again let us ask the question, What do these things 
signify, in themselves alone considered, such things as 
the choice of pasture ground, and the dietetic prefer- 
ences of the wild ass, that they should be so carefully 
described in an address of the Deity, delivered out of 
the depths of a whirlwind? What if indeed the wild ass 
does feed on the sides and tops of mountains, and what 
if, as a matter of taste, he prefers green grass to the cut 
and dried hay that his tame relative so contentedly and 



434 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

stupidly munches? What the wiser or the better are we 
for this information concerning the haunts, the habits, 
the prejudices and the preferences of the animal in ques- 
tion, considered merely as facts of his natural history? 
These are perfectly legitimate questions, being fairly 
within the lines of that search of the scriptures which 
may run parallel with each other, the one, of inquiry as 
to what they do not, and the other, as to what they do, 
signify. And they are asked here, partly because of 
their bearing upon a vast amount of just such informa- 
tion as this, concerning even the anatomical and physi- 
ological peculiarities of many more animals yet to be 
described in this address of the Deity to Job, "out of 
the whirlwind." 

As a matter of fact, the real subject of the text is 
not always the bellowing anarchist of the street corners, 
and the slums, nor yet the blatant infidel of the platform 
and the forum. On the contrary, he is often enough "a 
gentleman and a scholar," and among the way-ups in 
erudition and scholarship ; so high up indeed, that the 
voice of "Arod, the brayer," has been heard in our 
day mingling with that of the "higher critics" of the 
Bible. And this is what is signified by "The range of 
the mountains is his pasture." He chooses the highest 
range of thought possible to the mind of man for sub- 
jects of his wild speculation. God, religion, govern- 
ment, the sacred literatures of all time, the future des- 
tiny of the human race — all great and high themes are 
his ; nothing little or low down is worthy the attention 
of the ranger of the mountains for his intellectual pas- 
turage. And here it is, along these lofty ranges of his 
high and flighty speculations, that "he searcheth after 
every green thing." For here, Every green thing, sig- 
nifies Every New Thing that can be thought of, or 
searched out on the ground of his always great subjects. 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 435 

The greatest of teachers said to his class : 

"Therefore every scribe which is instructed 
unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man 
that is an householder, which bringeth forth 
out of his treasure things new and old." 

Not so, the arod, the brayer ; he brings forth from his 
"treasure" nothing but new things. In fact, all old things 
are his special abhorrence. The Bible, for instance, is 
much too old a book for him ; there isn't a "green" thing 
in it for him to search after. It is all cut and dried stuff, 
like that his domesticated and distant relative fills his 
foolish paunch with, and thinks himself well fed when he 
can get a plenty of just such stuff. For just as it requires 
only that a sufficient number of other people should be- 
lieve a thing, to make him doubt it, so it needs only that 
anything whatever should be sufficiently old and vener- 
able in the sight of others, to insure -his contempt for it. 
In his irreverence towards the Old, and his insane pas- 
sion for the New, the W. A. has always been more or less 
in evidence. The apostle Paul found him well repre- 
sented among the Greeks at Athens, "For all the Atheni- 
ans and strangers which were there spent their time in 
nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new 
thing" — as he writes in Acts, 17:21. Nevertheless, he was 
necessarily to be, as he certainly has been, more abun- 
dantly in evidence since the commencement of the Chris- 
tian Era than ever before in the world's history ; and his 
work in the world, as an unavoidable phase of that false 
Messianism which was certain to accompany and keep 
pace with the true — for he always assumes the role of the 
Savior, in some capacity or other — has here been made a 
fitting subject of Messianic prophecy, for that he repre- 
sents all those who, from a false conception of freedom, 
and in their defiance of all authority, human or divine, say 
in their hearts, if not openly: "We will not have this 
man to rule over us." 



436 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

The Unicorn. 
Verse 9 : 

"Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, 
or abide by thy crib?" 

Verse 10: 

"Canst thou bind the unicorn with his 
band in the furrow? or will he harrow the val- 
leys after thee?" 

Verse 11 : 

"Wilt thou trust him, because his strength 
is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?" 

Verse 12: 

"Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring 
home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?" 

As everyone knows, the word "unicorn," means one 
horn, and is a name for an animal having one horn only. 
It is used in scripture both in the literal, and the sym- 
bolical sense. In Numbers, 23:22, it is written of Jacob, 
that "he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn." 
And in verse 11, of this series, "Wilt thou trust him, 
because his strength is great?" These two examples 
serve to show that the unicorn is considered scripturally, 
as a creature of great strength. The word, "horn," it is 
equally well known, signifies in scripture symbology, a 
Power. In Psalms it is written : "Thou hast heard 
me from the horns of the unicorns ;" here the word 
"unicorns" is used symbolically, and signifies the powers 
of the World. Here in Job, the word is used in the same 
sense as in the passage quoted from Psalms, only that 
here it signifies, collectively, the forces of Nature, as 
subdued and rendered serviceable to man, and the many 
and various mechanisms, small and great, which are 
today instruments of man's redemption from his long 
ages of bondage to soul and body dwarfing toil for the 
mere means of bodily subsistence. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 437 

And it being impracticable to treat them all spe- 
cifically, they are here grouped together under one great 
head, or horn, called the Unicorn — another instance of 
that necessary, but still marvellous condensation of 
formula with which this whole work is compact, and 
still another illustration of that supernormal wisdom 
of conception, and consummate skill in construction 
which mark it all as of divine origin and authorship. 
The figure is given an agricultural basis, first of all in 
keeping with the figure of him to whom it is in form 
addressed, as that of a tiller of the soil on a large scale. 
Then, because agriculture opens the widest possible 
representative field for the representative work of the 
subject, this implying the commerce of the seas for ex- 
change of product, the whole figure being of world-wide 
application. And so it is that whenever or wherever to- 
day, wind or water, electricity or steam, or any of the 
forces or motor powers of nature are harnessed to 
mechanisms of human invention and contrivance, and 
made to do the work of man, then and there the unicorn 
is bound "With his band in the furrow," "band," and 
"furrow," being, as here used, generic terms inclusive of 
every species of constraint of power, and of all forms of 
its application to the service of mankind. Then and 
there does he "harrow the valleys after thee" — that is, 
in the service of his lord and master. 

In the literal sense of the words, the unicorn is 
neither willing nor unwilling to serve his master, hav- 
ing no will nor wish whatever, the question : "Will the 
unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib ?" 
being resolvable into the real query : Can these tremen- 
dous forces of Nature be tamed of their wild freedom, 
and brought into subservience to the will of man, and 
made to work or to wait, according to his convenience? 
And here, if the student and searcher of this scripture 
can make the proper allowance for the language of 



438 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

drama, where all is pure representation, and nothing at 
all of record as to literal facts, he may be saved the pre- 
posterous notion of the "critics" that here the Lord of 
heaven and earth has come in person to ask, out of the 
midst of a mighty commotion of the elements, called 
"the whirlwind," such questions as these, of "Job," con- 
cerning the one-horned rhinoceros, which is the creature 
they now all agree upon as what is meant by the "uni- 
corn." 

Concerning the questions : "Wilt thou trust him, 
because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy 
labor to him?" there should now be no difficulty in ar- 
riving at a safe and a sane conclusion as to what they 
signify. From the very narrow point of view of the 
standard commentaries they signify this: that the Lord 
now asks a man who has five hundred yoke of oxen, 
three thousand camels, and five hundred she asses, or 
four thousand and five hundred head of healthy working 
cattle to do his work for him, if now he is going to put 
his trust in a wild beast of the swamps and jungles, just 
because he is perhaps a bit stronger than any one of his 
thousand head of working oxen, and leave his labor all 
to a wild and savage beast which he has, probably, never 
seen, much less captured and broken him to work in 
single harness. This is how these questions of the Lord 
to Job, look to the literalists — those "wise and prudent" 
from whom these things have been "hid." But to such 
of us — mere "babes," in comparison with those — who 
have had them revealed to us by the Spirit of Truth, 
they signify, in the last analysis of their meaning and 
application, this : That whenever or wherever in the 
world today there is a piece of mechanism, small or 
great, that is doing work which of old was done by hand, 
then and there is seen illustrated, in a smaller or a larger 
way, that trusting of hinj, "because his strength is 
great," and that leaving of labor to him, which are here 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 439 

preindicated in this ancient piece of Messianic prophecy, 
under the figure of the Unicorn, and in the form of inter- 
rogations of the Lord to the patriarch Job, concerning 
the same. This, from the cheerful rattle of the sewing 
machine in thousands of homes, to the whirr of factory 
wheels in cities and towns, on to the vibrant rush and 
roar of the gallant steed of steel and steam from coast 
to coast, and the softer but mightier swish and sway of 
the gigantic steamship, bound with its band in the fur- 
row of the deeper soil of the sea, is all ours to hear as 
well as see, in historic fulfillment of this phase of the 
great prophetic Drama of Today, which is called The 
Book of Job. 

One verse only, of the series relating to the uni- 
corn, now remains for explication : 

"Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring 
home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?" 

Here we are at once reminded of Christ's parable in 
which "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man 
which sowed good. seed in his field." But an enemy 
sowed tares among the wheat ; "and his servants would 
have gathered them out ; but he said, wait until harvest ; 
then would he say to the reapers : Gather ye together 
first the tares, and bind them in bundles, to burn them: 
but gather the wheat into my barn." And well we may 
be so reminded ; for the two passages, so identical of 
phrasing, are equally so in meaning; for both refer to 
the final judgment of the world when the "wheat" of 
the sowing of Christ shall be gathered into the garner 
of God. "Wilt thou believe him?" — that he will do this 
— is not to be construed literally, as of belief or con- 
fidence in a person, that he will do this or that thing 
desired to be done, but as signifying a certainty of result 
from the use and employment of all such agencies and 
instruments as are embodied in the figure of the unicorn. 



440 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

These are all such means and methods as are now 
in our day employed and adopted by mankind for the 
shortening of time, the lightening of labor, and the 
hastening on and consummation of man's work in the 
world, such as powerful mechanisms in the department 
of agriculture, binding there "the unicorn with his band 
in the furrow," and having him to "harrow the valleys 
after thee," trusting him "because his strength is great," 
and leaving their labor to him, for that he can do more 
work in an hour than an hundred men with their hands 
in a day. Then they believe him also that he will bring 
home their seed, and gather it into their barn, under 
their direction. The same is true in all the departments 
of manufacture and commerce ; the lightnings leap to do 
their bidding, to go where they are sent, and to say what 
they are told to say ; the iron horse rushes over his road, 
the steamship plows its wide furrow across the ocean, 
both in the largest way to bring home his seed to his 
largest barn, the market of the world; and this, the prod- 
uct of his sowing in every department of human labor 
and enterprise. Everywhere, and in every field, he leaves 
his labor to him, and trusts him "because his strength 
is great," and believes him, that he will bring home the 
seed, and gather it into the barn — the storehouse of all 
the products of human labor left to the unicorn. 

But now these great and glorious institutions of to- 
day, such as the printing press, the electric telegraph, 
the iron railway, the ocean steamship, together with the 
wide field-sweeping mechanisms of agriculture and man- 
ufacture everywhere, which are the pride and boast of 
our civilization, and which are all included in our text 
from Job, under one strong head or horn of power, 
called The Unicorn, have under the providence of God, 
and in view of the mission of Christ to the world, a 
far nobler and diviner use *and value than they possess 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 441 

as mere factors of a widened commerce, and a broad- 
ened civilization in its material aspect. 

When the man with the hoe, who "Bowed with 
the weight of centuries, leans upon his hoe and gazes 
on the ground," with his "loose and brutal jaw let 
down," and with his scant forehead scarce seamed with 
any line of thought, gives place to the man on the riding 
cultivator betwixt the rows of standing corn, himself 
erect, upright as they, guiding his unicorns bound with 
their band in the furrow before him, with an intelligent 
eye and a trained hand ; when the man with the sickle, 
bent to the ground, groping slowly, painfully forward, 
grasping with his clumsy left hand a half dozen straws, 
and with his almost equally clumsy right, sawing them 
off and tucking them away into a sheaf, which he must 
push along on the ground before him, and tie with a few 
selected straws from the bunch, gives way for the man 
on the reaper and binder in one, with the sheaves sliding 
on the ground to the time and tune of its whirling wheels, 
himself the monarch of all the field he surveys, and 
whose right of way there is none to dare to dispute. 

When the man on muleback climbing the mountains 
on a six days' journey of two hundred miles to deliver 
a message on the other side, makes way for the man at 
the keyboard in the telegraph office who touches a key, 
and the message is- delivered a thousand miles away ere 
he can lift his finger from the key ; when for the slow 
thump, thump, of the old-fashioned flail on the thresh- 
ing floor, pounding out fifty bushels of wheat in the 
course of a winter, is substituted the steady hum of the 
steam thresher of a summer day — having "as it were the 
strength of an unicorn," bound with his long and wide 
band in the "furrow" of his use, and pouring out a steady 
stream of golden grain into the waiting vehicles at the 
side of this unicorn, which are a part of his equipment 
for bringing home the seed, and gathering it into the 



442 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

barn ; when all of these things have been brought to 
pass, as they have been in our day, we /have seen a prac- 
tical illustration of what is here meant by trusting the 
unicorn, because his strength is great, and leaving our 
labor to him. And when we see substituted for the 
small and slow processes of old for the distribution of 
the fruits of human labor among the markets therefor, 
the rushing train and the gliding steamship, laden with 
every product of human skill and industry, and bound 
for the markets of the world, we see what is here meant 
by bringing home the seed and gathering it into the 
barn, illustrated in the largest practical way. But the 
whole spiritual meaning and application of the figure of 
the unicorn, like that of every figure of the series, is 
Messianic. It is, in substance and effect, and in Mes- 
sianic prophecy, Christ's parable of the Sower ; begin- 
ning like it, with the field, wherein the unicorn is bound 
with his hand in the furrow, preparatory to the sowing 
of the seed, like it, this also ends with the harvest and 
the gathering of the seed into the barn of Job, who, 
under this figure, is the same Lord of the tillage and 
the harvest, as he of the later parable of the same things, 
which are the sowing of the seed of the Word in the 
earth, and at the harvest, the end of the world, gather- 
ing it into the barn. Remembering this : that here we 
are in the midst of a series of figures, small and great, 
all derived from the animal kingdom, and all relating to 
the kingdom to be set up in the earth in the latter days 
when he should come of whom all this is testimony, 
there need be no great difficulty, nor any uncertainty as 
to what is signified by the figure of the unicorn — that it 
is significant of all those newly discovered forces, inven- 
tions and institutions of men whereby today, as was 
never possible before, they are seeking to shorten time, 
lighten labor, and enhance its value, and which, in a 
vastly higher and grander capacity, undreamed of by 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 443 

their discoverers and inventors, the Christ of God is 
utilizing for the swifter advancement of his kingdom, 
and for hastening the time for the consummation of his 
work in the world in that final judgment of the world 
when the harvest comes, and the "wheat" shall be sep- 
arated from the "chaff," and gathered into the "barn" 
of the Lord of the field. 

And so it is, that in this our day, whatever makes 
for power or speed — or flashing wire, or rushing steed — ■ 
to bear to other lands afar, the message of the Morning 
Star, with its final result to the world, is here in this 
ancient piece of Messianic prophecy which we have 
called A Drama of Today, gathered together, for brev- 
ity's sake, into one compact and powerful figure, called 
the unicorn — a name for the figure, which, when we 
consider its purpose and meaning, in its exceeding apt- 
ness, and all-around excellence for that purpose^ could 
not be equaled in a choice from the world's vocabulary. 
And while we are thoroughly satisfied that our inter- 
pretation and application of the figure of the unicorn are 
substantially and in the main, correct, it is certainly 
and invitingly open to criticism of any or all of its par- 
ticulars, and just as certainly closed to anything like a 
complete refutation as a whole. 

Of the Peacocks, and the Ostrich. 

Verse 13 : 

"Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the 
peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the os- 
trich ? 

"14. Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, 
and warmeth them in dust, 

"15. And forgetteth that the foot may 
crush them, or that the wild beast may break 
them. 



444 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

"16. She is hardened against her young 
ones, as though they were not hers : her labor 
is in vain without fear ; 

"17. Because God hath deprived her of 
wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her under- 
standing. 

"18. What time she lifteth up herself on 
high, she scorneth the horse and his rider." 

The learned have met more than their match in the 
figure of the "peacocks," for figure it is, and not know- 
ing this, they know not what to make of it. Some think 
there is here a mistranslation, and that the stork is the 
bird that is meant; and others, the falcon. As a matter 
of course, they are all wrong; the peacock is here pre- 
cisely the bird intended in the original. For any ex- 
haustive forecast of Messianism, as incorporated in hu- 
man history, and so, subject to many and great perver- 
sions, which should have omitted Vanity, or that spe- 
cious outside show and spectacular display, as a substi- 
tute for the Spirit and the Life within, which has been, 
and still is, so large a phase of Christian worship, would 
have failed of anything like a complete representation 
thereof. 

We have had open-mouthed and blatant Infidelity 
represented under the figure of the "wild ass ;" and False 
Christs and Prophets, under the figures of the "wild 
goats" and the "hinds." And now we have here, Vanity, 
under the figure of the "peacocks," with their "goodly 
wings" — goodly indeed to look at, but of small use for 
anything else. The peacock is a beautiful bird, and that 
is all he is ; his plumage is something gorgeous to be- 
hold when spread abroad in the sunshine, all for his own 
glory and the admiration of his flock. Here his figure 
foretells the time to come when the nominal Church of 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 445 

Christ shall depart from the primitive simplicity and 
purity of Christian worship, and "Will deem in outward 
rites and specious forms, religion satisfied." And this 
in part, has been its history in the past, to say nothing 
Of how much of Peacockism may yet remain in its midst. 
In this, we find an adequate motive for the speech of 
Jehovah to Job from out of the whirlwind, concerning 
the peacocks and their "goodly wings ;" but not so in 
any other way. 

But when it comes to the "ostrich" with her "wings 
and feathers," they are satisfied that the translators have 
made no mistake ; the ostrich is the bird intended in 
the original ; also that the Lord in person actually talked 
with Job about that ungainly bird in an effort to con- 
vince him of something which he already knew, or would 
have known had he been a real person, namely : that he 
did not give to the ostrich her wings and feathers. But 
this accomplished, they fail to inform us what is signi- 
fied by the Lord's careful description of the habits and 
traits of character of this big bird of the desert — how 
careless alike she is of her eggs and her young, leaving 
"her eggs in the earth" to be warmed into life by the 
dust, and when they are hatched she is "hardened against 
her young ones as though they were not hers." And 
that "her labour is in vain without fear" — God having 
"deprived her of wisdom," nor has he "imparted to her 
understanding." Then she is exceeding swift, "what 
time she lifteth up herself on high," so that then "she 
scorneth the horse and his rider." 

Admitting all this to be a very close and accurate 
account and description of the ways, habits and charac- 
ter of the Arabian ostrich, as mere facts of natural his- 
tory, known to everybody, they are of no such signifi- 
cance in themselves as to be made a matter of record in 
the inspired Word of God, except for some representa- 
tive use and purpose. And the use of the figure of the 



446 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

ostrich, as here employed, is to represent the half-hearted 
Christian Church or individual, wherever existent. The 
ostrich is partly beast, and partly bird, and rightly 
neither ; endowed with wings, she cannot fly, because her 
wings are not strong enough to lift her heavy body 
clear from the ground. Here the "wings" which God 
has given her, represent the weak heavenward aspira- 
tions of the half-hearted Christian ; they are not strong 
enough to lift him above the earth. They can serve only 
to accelerate his speed upon the ground, as do the wings 
of the ostrich. 

What time he lifteth up himself on high, which oc- 
casionally he does, he runs the Christian race with ex- 
ceeding swiftness, so far as surface indications go ; yet 
he never rises clear from the ground of his earthy nature 
into the spiritual heavens above. He is too heavy of 
body and too light of wing for that ; and what more per- 
fect and admirable figure of this sort of Christian could 
there be found in all Nature than this of the ostrich, 
half of earth and half of heaven, half running and half 
flying, a sort of go-between the two? She "leaveth her 
eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust," forget- 
ful "that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast 
may break them." Here her "eggs," and her leaving 
them in the earth, exposed to destruction from various 
sources, signify aspirations not placed in heaven, but 
left in the world where any traveler that way may 
chance to defeat them, or some wild beast of human 
passion may break them up. 

The true bird of heaven builds her nest above the 
ground, out of the reach of contingencies and casualties 
of an earthly character or kind ; and her hopes and ex- 
pectations are warmed into life, not in the dust of the 
earth below, but in the heat and light of the heaven 
above. Not so, the ostrich ; then when her eggs mayhap 
are hatched, "She is hardened against her young ones, 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 447 

as though they were not hers." She leaves them to 
exist and subsist as best they may, without defense, pro- 
tection or support from her, their unnatural parent. 
Herein is represented those churches which have for 
their ambition a large flock, the larger the better, this 
being their principal aim and end — numbers, and a name 
that they live and flourish. Then when their fledgelings 
are hatched and labeled, they neglect to cherish and 
support them spiritually, being more desirous for more 
birds than for the safety and advancement of those they 
alread) have, many of whom fall a prey to the Tempter 
for lack of care and protection on the part of their un- 
spiritual parent. 

Such were some of the churches of Galatia in the 
day of Paul ; they ran with exceeding swiftness at first, 
and made many converts and multiplied rapidly in num- 
bers. But they neglected to care for them spiritually, 
and many perished and passed away to the worship of 
false gods. Writing to them, Paul says : "Ye did run 
well ; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the 
truth?" And, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched 
you . . . ?" Like the ostrich, they ran very swiftly 
for a season; but like her again, they scon fell down 
and hid their heads in the weeds of false doctrines. 
Neither had anybody bewitched them but themselves ; 
they were ostriches — built that way from the beginning, 
God having deprived them of wisdom, neither had he 
imparted to them understanding. Therefore their labor 
was "in vain without fear," like hers that is here a 
chosen figure of the same, and of all like unto them 
everywhere and always. 

Of the Horse. 

The following description of the spirited and mettle- 
some war horse, occupying seven verses of this chapter, 
and purporting on the face of it to have been given by 



448 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the Lord in person to the patriarch Job, reminds us at 
once of the Apostle Paul's critique on that law of Moses 
which reads : "Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the 
ox that treadeth out the corn." Of this he says : "Doth 
God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for 
our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: 
that he that ploweth should plow in hope . . .." So 
we ask here : Does God take such care for horses, how 
they look and act, and what kind of a noise they make 
when they neigh, and how their accoutrements rattle 
against them when they run, and how they sometimes 
snatch up a mouthful of earth and swallow it in "their 
fierceness and rage" — all as here described, that he 
should take such pains as here to describe it? Or says 
he these things for our sake, — that we who plow the 
soil of this Word should plow in the sure hope of, find- 
ing something in it more befitting the occasion and the 
speaker than a mere description of how the cavalry horse 
looks and acts in the face of a battle, however graphic 
and spirited that description may be? Doubtless, for 
this, these things are written. And now, having searched 
beforehand and found in connection with, and relation 
to, all that has gone before, the real significance of this 
figure of the horse, described by the Lord out of the 
whirlwind to Job, that it is of one of the strong and 
great figures of the whirlwind epoch of Christian his- 
tory, namely : The Iron Horse of Today, we proceed to 
our exposition of the text verse by verse. 

Verse 19: 

"Hast thou given the horse strength? hast 
thou clothed his neck with thunder?" 

The first of these two questions is answered by Job 
himself when at the last he is made to acknowledge that 
the Lord can do everything, and himself nothing, of 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 449 

himself, which is the Christ's own acknowledgment, that 
of himself he could do nothing. The allusion is to the 
tremendous strength of the horse of iron and steam, so 
far surpassing the strength of the horse of flesh and 
bone, that we have already something here befitting the 
speech of a God of infinite strength himself. Also we 
have as soon as this, in the second question, hast thou 
clothed his neck with thunder? something which at once 
contraindicates the idea of the living horse as the real 
subject of this discourse of the Deity. For there is noth- 
ing in or on or about the neck of a horse in any degree 
or way resembling thunder, the loudest noise ever heard 
on earth, that any possible comparison could be made 
of one with the other. Dr. Clark recognizes a discrep- 
ancy here, and says : "How thunder and the horse's neck 
can be well assimilated to each other, I confess I can- 
not see." He then falls back upon another hypothesis 
quite as untenable as the one he finds himself forced to 
abandon, and says: "I am satisfied that the floating 
mane is here meant." For our part, how the utterly 
soundless floating of the mane of the horse can be any 
better compared with thunder than the silent arching of 
his neck, is something we confess we cannot see. An- 
other critic, also seeing the difficulty, thinks that the 
translation is wrong, and substitutes "terror" for "thun- 
der." The translators are exactly right, and the critics 
all wrong; thunder is the word, than which no other 
could have been more aptly chosen, for the purpose in 
view. 

In scripture symbol the word "neck" signifies the 
seat of power ; it is used here in this sense ; and the 
"thunder" with which the neck of the iron horse is 
"clothed," signifies those deep and thunder-like vibra- 
tions which shake the earth around as they emanate 
from the seat of the power of the tremendous steed of 
steel and steam. And now, when it is known what is 



450 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

signified by this figure of "the "horse" here in Job, the 
difficulty encountered by the critics in the highly poet- 
ical phrasing of the clause, hast thou clothed h>s neck 
with thunder? is overcome, and the discrepancy of which 
they complain, is seen to be of their own creating out 
of a false conception of a figure which they mistake for 
a literally described fact. 

Neither is this the only place in scripture where the 
Iron Horse of Today is foretold under the figure of the 
living horse. That part of the prophecy of Isaiah which 
is contained in chapter 5, covers and includes the same 
period of historic time in which we now are here in Job. 
He speaks of the same methods of warfare, by artillery, 
that are foretold in the chapter next before this, say- 
ing, "the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn 
in the midst of the streets." Then, of the warriors of 
that time, to come, now come, he says, "their horses' 
hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a 
whirlwind." These "horses" on wheels, and they, "like 
a whirlwind," are the same as "the horse" here de- 
scribed in Job, who also has hoofs hard like flint, and 
wheels like a whirlwind. 

. Verse 20: 

"Canst thou make him afraid as a grass- 
hopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible." 

While the first clause of this verse is interpretable 
just as it here reads, by making proper allowance for 
the extremely poetical phrasing, that of Prof. Noyes is 
preferable for its plainness : "Canst thou make him bound 
like a locust?" Mr. Good's translation: "Hast thou 
given him to launch forth as an arrow?" is also an im- 
provement for its simplicity and ease of application. 
The driver of the iron horse, by a sudden pull of the 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 451 

lever, can make him literally bound like a locust, or 
launch forth as an arrow. And this is what is referred 
to in the text. 

As for, "the glory of his nostrils is terrible," there 
is nothing in the snorting of a horse that could with 
any propriety be termed a "glory," much less a "terri- 
ble glory," whether seen or heard. On the other hand, 
how apt and excellent the figure as referring to the 
sometimes sudden and terrific exhausts of smoke, flame 
and steam from the "nostrils," or escapes, of the power- 
ful steed of the railway, especially when seen and heard 
at night. Then indeed the glory of his nostrils is ter- 
rible. 

Verse 21 : 

"He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in 
his strength : he goeth on to meet the armed 
men." 

Why "in the valley" rather than elsewhere? — do not 
horses paw out of the valley as frequently as in it? Cer- 
tainly the living horse has no preference for the valley 
over any other place to paw in ; why then has the pains 
been taken to indicate the precise place where this 
"horse" does the most of his pawing? The word "val- 
ley" has been deliberately and judiciously chosen as rep- 
resenting the always chosen and preferred route of the 
real horse of the text, the iron horse, which is the valley, 
rather than the hillside or mountain top ; and this, for 
reasons too obvious to require comment ; everyone knows 
why he "paweth in the valley" rather than on the high 
lands. 

Then how he seems to rejoice in his strength as he 
goes grandly on his chosen way, wreathed in the "ter- 
rible glory" of "his nostrils," and chanting his song of 
triumph as though it were : "You have harnessed me 
down with your iron bands. Now be sure of your curb 



452 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 




THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 453 

and rein; For I scorn the strength of your puny hands, 
As the tempest scorns a chain." Rejoiceth in his strength, 
is simply one of those poetic imputations of the prop- 
erties of life to inorganic matter which so frequently 
occur in scripture, and nothing more nor less. Then, 
"he goeth on to meet the armed men," is what has led 
to the conclusion that it is not the domestic animal, but 
the cavalry horse that is here described. It is true this 
figure in prophecy of the iron horse of today is based 
upon the war horse of that day when this prophecy was 
penned, but with several important and necessary devia- 
tions therefrom, to be noted hereafter. 

The allusion in this clause of verse 21 is to the 
great prominence of the part to be taken in his day by 
the horse of iron in the military affairs of that period. 
And it is so now in our day that no great military enter- 
prise is or can be undertaken and accomplished without 
the use and aid of the iron horse, or the railway, for the 
transportation of the munitions of Avar, and of troops 
from both sides. And this is what is meant by, "he 
goeth on to meet the armed men" — a notable example 
of that brevity and compactness of much in little which 
is so distinguishing a feature of all the pictures by cor- 
respondence throughout this most wonderful piece of 
work. In a large fulfillment of this brief formula of Mes- 
sianic prophecy, scarcely a day now passes but some- 
where he goeth on to meet the armed men — all within 
the meaning of its . few and simple words, for which 
large allowance must be made everywhere in so great 
a work within so small a space. 

Verse 22 : 

"He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; 
neither turneth he back from the sword." 

The sole purpose of this verse appears to be to dis- 
tinguish the subject from the figure, which is that of a 



454 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

horse, and so to assist in its final identification as a piece 
of humanly contrived mechanism more nearly resem- 
bling" the horse in its combination of power and speed 
than any other living- creature. .Now the horse is by 
nature one of the most timid and fearful of all animal- 
kind in his wild state ; neither has domestication nor 
military training ever subdued his native fearfulness to 
the extent of making him mock at fear. The cavalry 
horse never misses an opportunity to "turn back from 
the sword ;" and the main reliance of the cavalryman is 
in not giving him an opportunity to do so. In fact, to 
prevent stampedes of frightened horses is one of the 
chief difficulties encountered by cavalry soldiers in pres- 
ence of the enemy. Not so, the "horse" described by 
the Lord, "out of the whirlwind." He "mocketh at fear" 
— a poetic imputation to an insensate object of a prop- 
erty of animal life, like unto he "rejoiceth in his 
strength ;" and, "He saith among the trumpets," &c. 
Now a horse that would mock at fear, never affrighted 
at anything, nor ever turning back from danger of any 
kind, would not be a horse; he would be a machine re- 
sembling a horse somewhat, and given that name in a 
figure for a representative purpose. Such is "the horse" 
of Job. He is the Locomotive Engine of today, in 
prophecy. 

Verse 23 : 

"The quiver rattleth against him, the glit- 
tering spear and the shield." 

As the equipments of the cavalry horse rattle 
against him when he runs, so do those of the iron horse. 
The terms, quiver, spear, and shield, are correspondences 
to the attachments of the locomotive; the quiver, in 
which the mounted soldier carried his arrows, corre- 
sponds to and represents what is now called the "ten- 
der," or coal-carrier of the engine; and its arrows are 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 455 

coals, which shoot forth, as it were, arrows of flame 
when ignited. And how his quiver "rattleth against 
him" at times, is a matter of common observation. The 
"glittering spear and the shield" of the iron horse are 
both in one; it is the spear-shaped shield in front, to 
prevent damage to the body behind it, like the warrior's 
shield in battle. And that it is a "glittering spear," can 
be seen when in rapid motion in the sunshine, which is 
the only occasion when the spear of the warrior ever 
glitters. And so, the correspondence is perfect and com- 
plete throughout. And yet they tell us that here the 
Almighty has descended from heaven in person, 
wrapped in clouds and stormy winds, to vouchsafe to 
mankind the information that when a cavalry horse is 
on the run, his accoutrements rattle against him \ 

Verse 24 : 

"He swalloweth the ground with fierceness 
and rage : neither believeth he that it is the 
sound of the trumpet." 

The figure of swallowing the ground is derived from 
the Arabic — a tongue as famous for its metaphors as the 
people for their fondness for swift horses. To this day 
their favorite metaphor for the speed of a fast one is, 
"He swallows the ground." The writer of Job has taken 
up and used this figure in his prophetic account of the 
tremendous speed of the iron horse of today. Moreover, 
such aptness and force as the figure possesses in its ap- 
plication to the swift horse of flesh and bone, are greatly 
enhanced when we come to apply it to the stronger and 
swifter horse of iron .and steam. And this, whether we 
stand by the way and watch, as he rushes past in his 
"fierceness and rage," the ground swallowed up into the 
dark, cavernous mouth underneath his "shield" in front, 
or sit in a coach in the rear and see the entire landscape 



456 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

on both sides gliding swiftly backward and swallowed 
up and lost in the distance. Then it is as though he had 
swallowed the earth with fierceness and rage, as far as 
he has gone over it; and the great beauty and force of 
the figure are seen and felt as never before, and the 
Arabic meaning and use thereof become small and 
meager in comparison therewith. 

Then for — "neither believeth he that it is the sound 
of the trumpet" — this is expressly designed to differen- 
tiate the subject from the living horse. The trained and 
experienced war horse knows and distinguishes the 
sound of the trumpet from all other sounds as well and 
as readily as his rider and master, together with all its 
variations ; he does not know it by name, but he knows 
and understands the sound, and believes that it means 
advance or retreat, or swerve to the right or left, accord- 
ing as it is intended to indicate. Not so with the horse 
of our text ; he neither knows nor believes it is the sound 
of the trumpet, for that he neither knows nor believes 
anything whatever. And this is what is intended by, 
neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. 

Verse 25 : 

"He saith among the trumpets Ha, ha ; and 
he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of 
the captains, and the shouting." 

The use of the trumpet, whether in peace or war, 
is to greaten the voice ; here, "the trumpets," signify the 
great voices of the age of the iron horse. His is among 
them as one of the greatest ; therefore : He saith among 
the trumpets ; what he saith, ha, ha, is simply in repre- 
sentation of the signals of his approach to, and depart- 
ures from his stopping places. And whoever has heard 
these in our day, and who has not, has heard the voice 
of "the horse" of Job. And who so has heard the mighty 
monster of the iron rail rushing by on his hoofs "like 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 457 

flint, and his wheels like a whirlwind," has lived to hear 
somewhat of the rush and roar of "the whirlwind" out of 
which the Lord is dramatically represented as describing 
his horse, to Job. 

Lastly, what is meant by: he smelleth the battle 
afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting, 
is this : The day of the locomotrve engine of the modern 
railway, is also the day of the electric telegraph; and its 
wires are the nerves through which, it is poetically said, 
"he smelleth the battle afar off." By means of these, he 
is in communication with business for him at ever so 
great a distance. Moreover, "the battle" which he is 
said to smell afar off, is not necessarily a battle in the 
literal sense of the term, battle, though it may be this, 
and often is so. This has been provided for in a previous 
passage : he goeth on to meet the armed men ; there, the 
allusion is to the military capacity and use of the sub- 
ject. Here, it is to its commercial use and service in 
"the world's broad field of battle," with all its strifes 
and commotions. And "the captains" whose "thunder," 
and "shouting," this "horse" is said to smell afar off, are 
they who today are called the Captains of Industry. 
Theirs are the thunder and the shouting of orders and 
commands to come here, or to go there ; and smelling 
them afar off, he bounds like a locust, and launches 
forth as an arrow to obey them. The moral and Mes- 
sianic idea of this noble figure is something like this : 

"He shall a conqueror be, of time ; 
He shall a monarch be, of space; 
He shall weave them into a rhyme 
For the hymn of the human race." 

Verses 26 to 30: 

"Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and 
stretch her wings toward the south? 



458 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, 
and make her nest on high? 

"She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, 
upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. 

"From thence she seeketh the prey, and her 
eyes behold afar off. 

"Her young ones also suck up blood : and 
where the slain are, there is she." 

Can it be rationally thought that the Lord in per- 
son actually delivered this discourse upon the southward 
migrations of hawks, and the mounting up of eagles, 
merely to convince the patriarch Job that the one wab 
not directed by his wisdom, nor the other done at his 
command? Would not these things have been a quite 
superfluous piece of information to a person of his pre- 
sumed knowledge and understanding? And who does 
not know them, that they should require a special reve- 
lation from the Lord that mankind might be informed 
of them? And is it not obvious at a glance that there 
must be some supernormal significance in these already 
well known circumstances, as here discoursed upon by 
the Lord, to make them worthy such an occasion, and 
such a speaker? Did the great Teacher in his discourses 
ever make an allusion to any natural fact or phenomenon 
except for some representative purpose, or to illustrate 
something of greater significance than the thing itself? 
Why then should we not look for something like His 
way of handling things like these in this great work 
which is all testimony of Him and his era? 

And now, having already been assured of this, where 
are we to look and to what circumstances or events of 
Christian history for something in the way of corre- 
spondence to these figures of the southward migration 
of the hawk, and the upward mounting of the eagle to 
the crag of the rock, and the strong place where she 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 459 

builds her nest, and whereon she abides? Both the hawk 
and the eagle are birds of prey; they subsist alike by 
rapine and plunder; and their use here is as representa- 
tives of those tribes and nations of peoples which have 
cut so large a figure in Christian history in precisely the 
same capacity — that of rapine and plunder. First, of the 
hawk, which is here said to "stretch her wings toward 
the south." This of course, is in search of a more con- 
genial climate, and of more abundant prey. And here 
she is made a most aptly chosen figure of the great south- 
ward migrations of the Northern Barbarians during the 
"dark ages" of the Christian Era. These were for the 
same purpose for which the hawk stretches her wings in 
the same direction — that they might prey upon and 
plunder every people they might find inferior in strength 
and savage ferocity to themselves. It was to protect 
herself against these, that China built the great wall, 
twelve hundred miles along her northern border. Partly 
foiled here, they swept downward over Brittainy into 
the southern provinces of the crumbling Roman empire, 
carrying fire and sword with them wherever they went, 
and leaving death and destruction everywhere on their 
broad trail, directly to the south, the southeast, and the 
southwest. They were all gross idolaters in some form 
or other, and of course, deadly enemies to Christianity. 
Nevertheless, Europe was saved to Christianity in spite 
of all their efforts and influence, direct and indirect, to 
destroy it. And it is in respect to this, that the figure 
of this predatory bird, the hawk, finds its chief and pecul- 
iar significance ; for the figure has a spiritual and a Mes- 
sianic meaning and application, as well as a literal and 
historical one. 

Next comes the figure of the eagle; like the hawk, 
the eagle is a bird of prey, but is a larger bird than the 
hawk, and does its similar work in a much larger way ; 
it is a bird of a higher and broader range of flight than 



460 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the hawk, though ultimately for the same low and grov- 
elling end — the gratification of its carnal propensities, 
and the satisfaction of its love of dominion over smaller 
and weaker birds. And for these reasons the eagle has 
been made here an emblem of such high aspiring and 
proud empires as have in history builded the framework 
of their constitutions out of the bones of their murdered 
victims, and drawn the spirit of their life put of their 
blood. Such was the Roman Empire, which from its 
specific relation to Christianity, was in its day and age the 
specific historic correspondence to the prophetic formula 
or figure of the "eagle" of our text — the eagle, by the way, 
was the national emblem of that powerful empire, the 
most fitting emblem of its high soaring aspiration, and 
of its blood-thirst, that could possibly have been 
chosen, even as it is so here in prophecy of the same. 

For more than twelve centuries, or from 754 B. C. 
to 476 A. D., Rome dwelt and abode on the rock, and 
the strong place of her power. From thence she sought 
her prey, and her eyes beheld afar off to the time when 
she should become what she became, the "Mistress of 
the World." Her young ones also sucked up blood : and 
where the slain were, there was she. Yet, of all the 
many and various religions of her numerous conquered 
peoples, Christianity was the one only religion which 
she sought to destroy ; all of the other religions were left 
undisturbed by her. And it was because of her peculiar 
and foreseen relations to Christianity, first as an inveter- 
ate foe, and last as a professed friend, Christianity hav- 
ing been adopted as the State Religion of the Empire 
just before its fall, that the Roman Empire of the far off 
future was made a subject of Messianic prophecy in the 
text now before us, as a World Power which was to 
occupy a peculiar and a vital relation to Christianity, 
so that their respective histories should henceforth and 
forever remain inseparable. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 461 

There is also other scripture where the same figure 
of the rock-built nest of a nation of people is employed. 
In Numbers, 24:21, we read that Balaam "..'.. looked 
on the Kenites* and took up his parable, and said, Strong 
is thy dwelling place, and thou puttest thy nest in a 
rock." But finally "a new Rome "rose from the ashes of 
the old, far mightier than the vanished empire, for it 
claimed dominion over the spirits of men." This was 
Papal Rome; and now, the figure of the mounting up of 
the eagle, and making her nest on high, and dwelling and 
abiding on the rock, and from thence seeking her prey, 
and with her eyes beholding afar off, with her young 
ones also sucking up blood, while where the slain are, 
there is she, altogether takes on an added and a peculiar 
significance ; for it is first, of the temporal and last of the 
spiritual empire of Rome that the eagle of the text is 
a figure therein. 

The Papal-Roman eagle made her nest "on high," 
saying in her heart, "I will ascend above the heights of 
the clouds; I will be like the Most High." She dwelt 
and abode on the rock of the Word of God, as she con- 
strued it in harmony with her high temporal and spir- 
itual ambitions and aspirations. From thence she sought 
her prey, and her eyes beheld afar off, even to the do- 
minion of the earth. Her young ones also sucked up 
blood, and where the slain of her wrath were, there was 
she, as their slayer. Shorn of her temporal power, in 
her was fulfilled another prophecy, ". . . though 
thou shouldst make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will 
bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord." For 
though this prophecy is not specific of the bringing down 
of the Papacy from the throne of temporal dominion, it 
is applicable alike to all who say, I will ascend above 
the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High, 
since without exception of small or great, ". . . who- 
soever exalteth himself shall be abased." 



CHAPTER XLV. 

The Whirlwind, Continued, With Representative Figures 
From Animal Kingdom. (Job xl.) 

The chapter next before this, as we have seen, is 
wholly taken up with figures from the animal kingdom ; 
but here in this chapter there is an interregnum of the 
first fourteen verses in which the Lord discourses on 
personal matters as between himself and Job. This ended, 
there is a return to the same kind of figures as those of 
the previous chapter, and the remaining ten verses are 
taken up with a description of a great beast called "behe- 
moth." This seeming interruption of the regular order 
of the discourse has greatly disturbed the critics ; they 
think it mars the literary symmetry of the work as a 
whole, and seek to account for it by assuming that the 
original manuscript in some way got mixed and mis- 
placed so that the first fourteen verses of this chapter 
have no proper place in it. Then they tell us to take 
them out and place them at the end of some other chap- 
ter, and the end of that other chapter at the beginning of 
this, and then the literary order and lost symmetry of 
the work will be restored — they being more concerned 
for this sort of thing than for the divine and Messianic 
idea of it all, of which they have no inkling of an idea 
themselves. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 463 

But this sudden interjection of a mass of doctrine 
into the midst of a description of figures from the animal 
kingdom, which has led the schoolmen to think it out of 
place, and to seek to correct it in the way mentioned 
above, is in harmony with the whole method of the work 
throughout, which is that of a constant alternation of 
things purely spiritual with descriptions of things tem- 
poral. It is so here ; the text is about to describe the 
downfall of many proud, empires, and high uplifted mon- 
archies, under the Messianic rule, and the substitution 
of democracies and republics therefor, under the figure 
of great Behemoth, which is a beast of Government: In 
prospective view of these stupendous changes of the po- 
litical' governments of mankind, it was the most appro- 
priate thing possible to preface their description with a 
discourse on the divine sovereignty over all human af- 
fairs ; and it is with this, that the fourteen first verses of 
this chapter are taken up. 

There has then been no misplacement of the manu- 
script, nor interruption of the regular and proper order 
of the divine discourse, either here or elsewhere in this 
work; and this lengthy preliminary to the account and 
description of the behemoth, called "the chief of the ways 
of God," is precisely where it most properly belongs, and 
is most suitable to the greatness and grandeur of the 
theme of the closing verses of the chapter, for which it is 
a preparation. 

Verse 1 : 

"Moreover the Lord answered Job and said, 
"2. Shall he that contendeth with the Al- 
mighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let 
him answer it." 

It has before this been shown what is signified in 
the drama by the answer of the Lord to Job — that it is 
not that the Lord in person actually spoke the words at- 



4G4 THT NEW BOOK OF JOB 

tributed to him, but that it is in the practical results of 
Christ's doctrine and ministry in and to the world, that 
Ave are to look for the practical meaning" of what is here 
called the answer of the Lord to Job, out of the whirl- 
wind. The Christ, under commission from God, came to 
revolutionize the world, its laws, customs, societies, busi- 
ness and governments, and to rebuild them all on a dif- 
ferent basis. And that revolution in the world's affairs 
is the ''whirlwind" out of whichlihe Lord is dramatically 
represented as answering Job ; and his answer is seen in 
the practical results of Christ's mission in and to. the 
world in the way of changed and bettered conditions of 
living therein. 

Some of these have been seen to have been brought 
about by or through the agency of such institutions as 
the printing press, the electric telegraph, the modern 
railway, and the navigation of the seas by vessels driven 
by steam — all agencies for the building up of a broader, 
better, and more enlightened civilization than the world 
has ever seen before. And now that the whirlwind is 
about to begin to sweep the political heavens and earth 
clear of the last vestiges of empires and monarchies, and 
to set up in their place governments of the people, and 
by the people, which are prefigured in the form and name 
of the behemoth, in the last nine verses of the chapter, 
it is all prefaced with this dialogue between the Lord and 
Job in order to make it clear, once for all, as to who is 
the prime mover in this great revolution in the political 
affairs of mankind — the Lord, or Job, who is the Christ. 
And it is acknowledged by Job that it is the Lord, even 
as the Son acknowledged the Father to be supreme, and 
himself as subject. 



THT NEW BOOK OF JOB 4G5 

Verse 3 : 

"Then Job answered the Lord, and said, 

"4. Behold, I am vile; what shall I an- 
swer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my 
mouth." 

The word "vile" is not to be literally construed, it 
being a strong" expression for the deep humility of the 
Christ before the Lord of all ; he would not suffer him- 
self to be called "good," saying to one who addressed 
him as "Good Master," "Why callest thou me good? 
none is good, save one, that is God." I will lay mine 
hand upon my mouth, represents the Christ's example 
to refrain from overmuch speech in the hearing of God; 
and his precept, That every idle word that men shall 
speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judg- 
ment. "Once have I spoken ; but I will not answer : yea, 
twice ; but I will proceed no further," represents the two 
speakings ; the one by the Law, the other, by the Gospel ; 
this having been preached, he would proceed no further; 
his work was finished in proclaiming the, gospel of sal- 
vation through Him. 

Verse 6 : 

"Then answered the Lord unto Job out of 
the whirlwind, and said, 

"7. Gird up thy loins now like a man : I 
will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me." 

He whom Job represents had been incarnated as a 
man, and commissioned by the Almighty to do his work 
in the world ; and now as a man-servant is made to rec- 
ognize his master as greater than himself, so the Son 
must know and declare the Father to be greater than 
himself. This he does in the Gospel, saying openly, 
". . . my Father is greater than I." 



46G THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

Verse 8 : 

"Wilt thou also disannul my 'judgment? 
wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be 
righteous ?" 

His chosen people, the Jews, had disannulled the 
judgment of God, and condemned Him, that they might 
be righteous, imputing righteousness to themselves 
rather than to God, that they might "outwardly appear 
righteous to men." And now, would he, his chosen One, 
with all his unexampled opportunity for so doing, would 
he also disannul the judgment of God, and condemn Him, 
that he might exalt his own righteousness rather than 
God's? This is the question at issue here; and indeed it 
was the most critical hour in the world's history when 
it was put to a practical test by Satan tempting him with 
all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, to 
disannul the judgment of God, and while still outwardly 
appearing to be righteous, to fall down and worship him. 
And he spurned the glittering prize, refusing to disannul 
the judgment of God, that God only is to be worshipped; 
neither would he impute righteousness to himself, but 
gave it all back to God, thus refusing to condemn Him, 
that he might be righteous himself, as it is tentatively 
asked here, if he would. Not that it was not known on 
high ; but for the world, it was its most critical ques- 
tion. 

Verse 9 : 

"Hast thou an arm like God or canst thou 
thunder with a voice like him? 

"10. Deck thyself now with majesty and 
excellency ; and array thyself with glory and 
beauty. 

"11. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath; 
and behold every one that is proud, and abase 
him. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 467 

"12. Look on every one that is proud, and 
bring him low; and tread down the wicked in 
their place. 

"13. Hide them in the dust together; and 
bind their faces in secret. 

"14. Then will I also confess unto thee 
that thine own right hand can save thee." 

Himself confessed that his own right hand could 
not save him, in that he cried to the Father in the hour 
of his great extremity to save him from that hour, if it 
were possible. And all this is to declare the omnipo- 
tence of God alone in the disposing of the great events 
here described as casting abroad his wrath, and bringing 
down the high and mighty, and hiding them in the dust 
together — the dust of oblivion- — for these things refer, 
as said before, to the final overthrow and everlasting 
destruction of all the proud empires and haughty 
monarchies of the earth, and the substitution therefor of 
governments ordained for the good of the governed; and 
not as heretofore for the sole benefit of the governors. 
And of these, the prophet now sets up a model under the 
figure of the great behemoth, which is a beast of govern- 
ment. In order to rightly time the appearance of this 
great new government on the page of Christian history, 
it must be remembered that we are now, in the time- 
order and sequence of the prophecy itself, past its fore- 
shadowings of the printing press, the electric telegraph, 
the iron horse, etc. Therefore, we are to look to our own 
immediate time for the historic correspondence to its 
prophetic type and figure, behemoth. For this, we have 
not far to look, nor is it hard to find. It is the great 
North American Republic — the United States of Amer- 
ica. And now to the text prophetic and descriptive of 
the same. 



468 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Verse 15 : 

"Behold now behemoth, which I made with 
thee; he eateth grass as an ox." 

''Behold," the first word of this introductory clause, 
is itself alone of a special significance as calling attention 
to something very great and notable ; then, "Behold now" 
— behemoth — has reference to the time-order of the sub- 
ject. There have been republics in the past; but they 
were republics only in name, owing to the fatal defect of 
failure to represent the people. But behold now, at last, 
something real in the way of government by and of the 
people themselves. Which I made with thee, or by thee, 
as it may be read, signifies made after the model of the 
Christie idea or ideal of government, which is self-gov- 
ernment; and this, whether applied to the individual, or 
to the nation. 

It is written of Him in Isaiah, "and the government 
shall be upon his shoulder." And "Of the increase of 
his government and peace there shall be no end." This 
must necessarily include all temporal government at last, 
as well as spiritual government ; otherwise, there could 
be no assured peace. The ideal government then, is one 
predisposed to Peace, and not to War. And this is predi- 
cated of the subject in the last clause of this first verse — 
"he eateth grass as an ox." We have seen that the fig- 
ures of the predatory powers of the world are taken from 
the carnivorae, or flesh eaters, such as the hawk 
and the eagle. This figure is from the herbi- 
vorae, or herb eaters, which subsist not by prey- 
ing upon the lives of others, but upon what grows out 
of the ground. In this way is preindicated the peaceable 
character and pacific disposition of the government of 
which the behemoth is a figure, and that it is to subsist, 
not by the sword, but from the soil, or by agriculture. 
And by the way, what particular use or value attaches 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 469 

to the information which, according to the critics, the 
Lord here imparts to his servant Job as to the dietetic 
preferences of the hippopotamus, or river horse? What 
does it signify one way or the other, that he prefers 
herbs to anything else, or something else to herbs, or 
grass, for his food? As a mere fact of natural history, 
what use does its mention serve, especially by the Lord, 
speaking from a whirlwind? There is no discoverable 
use in it or for it, in itself alone considered. 

But "Being used as a type, a second wonderful value 
appears in the object, far better than its old value/' And 
here it is used as a type of the unwar-like, and unpreda- 
tory character and disposition of that form and method 
of government of which whole behemoth is a happily 
chosen figure. And this applies equally to every de- 
scribed part and particular of the anatomy and physi- 
ology of the behemoth; they are none of them of any 
sufficient account, in themseh^es, to be worthy of men- 
tion. But being used as types, great indeed is their sig- 
nificance, as used in this connection. 

Verse 16: 

"Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and 
his force is in the navel of his belly." 

The words, Lo now, are themselves indicative of 
something very extraordinary to which special atten- 
tion is desired to be called ; for it is a well known fact 
and law of animal organisms of every kind, that the 
loins are the weakest part of their bodily structure ; 
and that their "force" is anywhere rather than in the 
navel of the belly. Not so with the great behemoth ; 
his strength and his force are located and manifested 
where those of no living animal are, or ever were. Well 
might the sacred writer have been impelled to exclaim, 
"Lo noAV," in coming to this strange and exceptional 
peculiarity in the anatomy and physiology of his sub- 



470 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

ject. It was something which had never been seen or 
known before in the entire animal kingdom — a huge 
beast with his strength in his loins, and his force in the 
navel of his belly ; nor has such a thing ever been seen 
from that day to this ; and lastly, not then ; for no ani- 
mal constructed in such a way as behemoth is described 
to have been, ever existed, so far as these two particu- 
lars go. 

We see described in the Book of Daniel, a beast 
"like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four 
wings of a fowl ; the beast had also four heads . . . " 
Then another beast ; "and it had great iron teeth, and it 
had ten horns." There never was a beast like a leopard, 
with four wings on its back ; nor yet another beast with 
great iron teeth in its mouth and ten horns on its head. 
Just so, there never was a beast with its main strength 
in its loins, and its chief force in the middle of its abdo- 
men. What then? Simply this: Whenever in scripture 
symbology a beast is used as a figure for something 
greater than itself, and the beast is lacking in some an- 
atomical feature or physiological function which it is 
desired to use for a representative purpose, that feature 
or function lacking in the beast itself, is supplied by the 
writer, or in the vision. 

This is what is done here in this part of the descrip- 
tion of the behemoth as a beast of government. What 
is to be represented is a great, new government, yet to 
be, which shall be based, not on kingly principles, nor 
monarchial precedents of the past, but upon its own 
self-generated principles of equal rights for all, and spe- 
cial privileges for none ; hence, "his strength is in his 
loins." As to what is meant by "and his force is in the 
navel of his belly," it is this : A strong central govern- 
ment, at which, and through which, all the force of the 
whole great organization is manifested — or a place 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 471 

where all the power of the whole people is centralized 
and represented ; in a word, The Capital. 

Verse 17: 

"He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews 
of his stones are wrapped together." 

Most of the schoolmen agree upon the hippo- 
potamus, or river horse, though some have argued for 
the elephant, as intended in this description of behe- 
moth. But here in, "He moveth his tail like a cedar," 
they have all met a difficulty which none of them have 
been able to overcome. Some of them steer clear of it 
by quietly ignoring the clause, making no comment 
upon it, realizing, as they do, the utter hopelessness of 
justifying the comparison between the movement of the 
tail of a river horse, or even that of the largest animal 
on earth, and the wide sweep of a lofty cedar, forward 
and backward athwart the sky, when swayed to and 
fro by a strong wind. "Therefore it was neither the 
elephant, who has a tail like that of the hog, nor the 
hippopotamus, whose tail is only about a foot long," 
says Dr. Clarke. But Avhat it was that move' 1 its tnil 
like a cedar, he wisely refrains from attempting to tell 
us. And. this alone, should be sufficient to assure us that 
the language of the entire text descriptive of behemoth, 
is purely figurative ; and that this clause thereof repre- 
sents some function or operation of the Power which 
the figure stands for as a whole. This is precisely what 
it does, and what it is, and can be told in fewer words 
than it required years to seek for it and to find it out. 
The word "tail," is used less often in scripture in the 
literal than in the symbolical sense ; here it is used in 
a way quite analogous to the way in which it is used 
in Revelation, 12:3-4, where we read a description of 
a "great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, 
and seven crowns upon his. heads. And his tail drew 



472 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them 
to the earth." Here in Job, the tail of great behemoth, 
moving like a cedar, symbolizes the same thing as the 
tail of the great red dragon, in Revelation, namely : The 
power that draws after itself; here, a political power. 
How great the drawing power cf the behemoth of re- 
publics, the hugest of them all, was predestined to be- 
come is here foreshadowed under the figure of moving 
his tail like a cedar, which signifies that wide arc of the 
political heavens, through which its influence was and is 
to sweep, and to draw other peoples and nations after 
it. And now, how apt the simile ; how excellent the 
image ; how just, and how beautiful the figure, which 
locked at as a comparison of the wriggling of the tail 
of a hippopotamus to the swaying to and fro in the 
wind, of a tall tree, like a cedar, is much more striking 
as a contrast, than as a comparison. 

What remains of this verse, for explanation, is — 
"the sinews of his stones are wrapped together." In 
the majority of instances where the word stone, or 
stones, is used in scripture it has a symbolical meaning, 
which is that of Fixed Truth ; or the same, multiplied. 
In his allusion to his rejection by the Jews, and his ac- 
ceptance by the Gentiles, the Christ compared himself 
to a stone ; saying, "The stone which the builders re- 
jected, the same is become the head of the corner." And 
Peter in his first epistle, says to the Church: "Ye also, 
as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house . . ." 
Then, of the building up of the Gentile, as a temple of 
Christ, the Spirit says by the prophet Isaiah, "Behold, 
I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy 
foundations with sapphires." 

Here also, what is called the wrapping together of 
the stones of behemoth, is in allusion to an up-building 
of a temple, the Temple of Freedom. And the "stones" 
thereof are the States of which it is builded and com- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 473 

posed ; then their being "wrapped together." in "the 
sinews" thereof, signifies, Held Together as One, in the 
Bonds of the Federal Union. Such is the real, true, and 
only significance of these words of the text — "the sinews 
of his stones are wrapped together." 

Verse 18: 

"His bones are as strong pieces of brass ; 
his bones are like bars of iron." 

Now the circumstance that the bones of a hippo- 
potamus are strong as so many pieces of brass, and are 
like bars of iron for strength, is without any sufficient 
significance, in itself considered, to merit a special reve- 
lation from the Lord to that effect. What indeed, if 
they are so ; what the wiser or the better are we for the 
information as a mere fact of the animal economy? But 
"Being used as a type, a second wonderful value appears 
in the object, far better than, its old value." And here 
it is used as a type ; and the only question of real inter- 
est is, Of what, is it a type? With the aid of the clue 
already had, in the meaning of the whole figure of behe- 
moth, as that of a great new government to be set up 
in the earth, in the latter days, the solution of the special 
problem as to what is meant by the marvellous strength 
of his bones, is comparatively easy. It is the frame- 
work of the Constitution of that government, around 
and upon which, everything pertaining to it is built, just 
as upon and all around the osseous, or bone-system, of a 
huge beast is built the flesh which rests upon it, and 
depends upon it for support. It is the interior and sup- 
porting frame of the entire bodily structure. Such is 
the Constitution of that government of which, behe- 
moth, as a whole, is a whole figure. His "bones," sep- 
arately considered, represent the Articles and Sections 
of the Constitution of the Behemoth of Republics ; and 
altogether, its tremendous strength. 



474 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

And now, that his bones are as strong pieces of 
brass, and are like bars of iron, in their strength, be- 
comes a circumstance of immense significance, both to 
us and to the world at large. It forebodes great, and 
long-enduring strength to the republic upon which the 
eyes of. the world are fixed, as upon a new dispensation 
of the gospel of Freedom ; yet which, some still regard 
as a tentative and doubtful experiment. But our fore- 
fathers builded better and wiser, and stronger than they 
knew, when they laid the foundations of a government 
which was to become what is described in the next verse 
of this prophecy thereof, which is specifically prophetic 
of its greatness. 

Verse 19: 

"He is the chief of the ways of God : he 
that made him can make his sword to ap- 
proach unto him." 

And still the wise and prudent, from whom these 
things are still hid, as of old, tell us that here the Lord 
calls the river horse, or river hog, the chief of his ways, 
and threatens him with the approach of his sword unto 
him, as though a creature of this kind could provoke 
the wrath of God, and bring down the judgment of high 
heaven upon itself. Then they say that the sword of the 
Lord, is his "corner tooth, of which, he has two" — that 
is, the behemoth, not the Lord — with much other 
equally terrible stuff of the same kind, which for very 
shame, we forbear to repeat. But we are told in other 
scripture — Nahum, 1:3, that ". . . the Lord hath 
his way in the whirlwind." And here, he is dramatically 
represented as speaking out of the whirlwind, and call- 
ing behemoth, the chief of his ways. 

By this is signified that the government prefigured 
in the behemoth, is a chief outcome of that revolution- 
ary epoch of Christian history with which the prophet 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 475 

is now dealing, and in the midst of which, we now are, 
Today. Moreover, that this is predestined to become 
and to be, the greatest of all governments; and so, the 
chief of the ways of God in the political phase of his 
government of mankind. Finally, what is meant by- 
he that made him can make his sword to approach unto 
him — is this : That however great and powerful the 
huge behemoth may become, it can never be sufficiently 
so to exempt it from the judgments of the Almighty, 
for its iniquities. One practical and historical illustra- 
tion of the meaning and application of this prophetical 
warning is here appended. When the foul blot of Slav- 
ery was wiped off the escutcheon of the government of 
the U. S. A., by the civil war, then did God make his 
sword to approach unto behemoth, and to smite him 
sorely for that iniquity — all within the meaning of 
these words of his prophet, here in Job. 

Verse 20: 

"Surely the mountains bring him forth 
food, where all the beasts of the field play." 

This, of itself alone, is sufficient to dispose of the 
theory of the critics that here we have a literal account 
of the haunts and the habits of, either the hippopot- 
amus, or the elephant, neither of which, inhabits the 
mountains, nor do the mountains bring- them forth food. 
The river-horse inhabits only the lowlands, where the 
rivers run, and subsists upon the rank green growths 
along their near-borders. Neither could he possiblv 
climb a mountain ; and if he could, he would find noth- 
ing there in the way of food suitable for his mainte- 
nance. The same is true of the elephant; unlike the 
wild ass, the range of the mountains is not his pasture, 
where there is nothing on which he could subsist. Some 
of the critics — so-called — wisely omit all comment on 
this clause, while others, such as Dr. Clarke, seek to 



476 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

overcome the acknowledged difficulty by supposing be- 
hemoth to have been a much bigger beast than even the 
elephant, and endowed with a leaping and springing 
power, like the antelope, and equipped with "many 
toes" for climbing use. But he succeeds only in aggra- 
vating the difficulty in proportion as he adds to the 
bulk of an already huge beast, the elephant. 

The larger beasts do not, and never did inhabit the 
higher altitudes of the earth; but always the lower; 
and this, for reasons too obvious for comment. And 
the only possible way to reconcile this apparent dis- 
crepancy is by reference to the government of which 
behemoth is a figure ; then, all is clear. ^The word, moun- 
tain, or mountains, when used in scripture in a sym- 
bolical sense, signifies a high, sovereign power of some 
kind, either good, or evil. And here, "the mountains" 
w r hich bring forth food to behemoth, signify the sover- 
eign States, which severally, and unitedly, contribute to 
the support of the general government; of which, whole 
behemoth is a whole figure. Here, there is an entering 
into the main particulars of its method of subsistence ; 
the states which unitedly compose the Federal Union, 
and maintain it, are still sovereignties in their own 
rights; and as such, are "mountains," within the mean- 
ing of the word, as used in this connection. Yet they 
acknowledge their fealty to the general government, and 
contribute of their substance for its maintenance and 
support ; and this, with regularity and certainty : hence, 
"Surely the mountains bring him forth food . . ." 
"Where all the beasts of the field play" — signifies the 
country at large, of which, geographically, the nation 
consists ; while — all the beasts of the field — represents 
"The common herd," as the mass of the people is called, 
in distinction from the segregated and comparatively 
uncommon few. 

We need take no exception to this, as the scripture 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 477 

abounds in examples where men are called beasts of 
the field, and birds of the air, both good and bad. "And 
ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am 
your God, saith the Lord God." Even so, all the beasts 
of the field of behemoth, which is the "mountains," with 
their peoples, are men. 

Verse 21 : 

"He lieth under the shady trees, in the 
covert of the reed, and fens. 

"22. The shady trees cover him wrtn 
their shadow; the willows of the brook com- 
pass him about." 

These two verses taken together, are what, more 
than anything else, have led to the conclusion that it is 
the hippopotamus, that here the Lord describes to Job, 
out of the whirlwind. Neither is it disputed that this 
animal, with its haunts and habits, has been chosen as 
a basis for the figure called behemoth. Wha~t is denied 
is that there is any sufficient value in the circumstances 
here related in these two verses, to make them worthy 
a particularized description by the Lord, however close 
and accurate that description may be, of matters of mere 
literal fact. For, what does it signify, as a fact of nat- 
ural history, that the animal in question takes his rest 
under the shady trees, or in the open sunshine? Or, 
vdiether he hides in the covert of the reed, and fens, 
or somewhere else? Or, whether the willows of the 
brook compass him about, or some other kind of bush 
or shrub or tree? that so much pains should be taken 
by the Lord to relate and describe these things — unless 
they are intended to signify and represent something 
of greater interest and importance than they possess in 
themselves ? 

The picture, in the order of its particulars, is as 
follows : Of Repose and Shelter — he lieth under the 



478 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

shady trees — Of Security in Isolation — in the covert of 
the reed and fens — Of Prosperity — the willows of the 
brook compass him about. Here every stroke of the 
master's pencil in the painting of this picture, is one of 
the loftiest poetic genius working under divine inspira- 
tion and direction. Every word is symbolical in mean- 
ing, and representative in its purpose. The "shady 
trees," under which behemoth lieth, are ". . . trees 
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might 
be glorified" — glorified in the upbuilding of a great, new 
government founded on principles of justice and equity 
to all its citizens. 

The "covert of the reed, and fens," under which 
behemoth hides himself, and is secure, is the covert 
of the wilderness of the New World into which our 
forefathers fled from persecution; and there, in their 
isolation from their enemies, found security and safety 
to preach and to practice the gospel of Freedom. And 
out of this, grew the Government of Freedom. There 
"the shady trees" of Truth, and Justice, covered it with 
their shadow, and sheltered it, until it grew great and 
strong, as it is, today. The "willows of the brook," 
which compass behemoth about, are, together, a wrought 
emblem of the phenomenon, unequalled in the world's 
history, of the marvellously rapid growth of the New 
Nation, and of its unparallelled prosperity throughout all 
its borders. No shrub or tree grows like the green wil- 
low, planted, or upspringing by the water-brook. And 
no more beautiful and perfect emblem than this, for its 
intended purpose, could have been conceived — not even 
by the incomparable poet and prophet of Job. 

Verse 23 : 

"Behold, he drinketh up a river, and 
hasteth not : he trusteth* that he can draw up 
Tordan into his mouth. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB m 479 

"24. He taketh it with his eyes : his nose 
pierceth through snares." 

The first word of verse 23 — behold — itself shows 
that something extraordinary is in view; and what fol- 
lows — he drinketh up a river — is so clearly poetical in 
phrase, and unliteral in meaning, that none of the critics 
have had the courage to claim it as having any literal 
sense. It means, they say, that he is so fearless of water 
that he can take a drink of it when he is dry, without 
haste or hurry, even when a river of it rushes against 
his mouth ; and not that he literally drinks a river dry. 
And this is all we learn of the wise and learned, in this 
connection. He drinketh up a river, is a figure of speecli 
quite analogous in form, to He swalloweth the ground, 
as said of the "horse," in the chapter next before this ; 
and is to be interpreted on much the same principle. 

The river that behemoth drinketh up and hasteth 
not, in a symbol of prophecy, is of the overflowing of 
the surplus populations of the old world across the sea, 
in a steady stream like the flowing of a river, into a 
broad land provided for them, in the providence of God, 
where they might find a refuge and a home in the New 
World, under the flag of Freedom. That he, behemoth, 
"hasteth not," signifies the calm security which the po- 
litical behemoth feels in beholding this broad river of 
human lives flowing over his borders, and into his in- 
teriors where there is room for all. He hasteth not to 
drink it up, nor to close his mouth against its flowing. 
Even so, "he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not." 

Then the clause — he trusteth that he can draw up 
Jordan into his mouth — is derived from the circum- 
stance that when the Israelites came out of Egypt into 
their promised land, the river Jordan was made a line 
of demarcation between the several tribes. Some were 
rettled to the eastward, and some to the westward of 



480 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Jordan; and this circumstance was a cause of much dis- 
cussion, and an occasion of some dissension between 
them. The tribes on the eastern side, who were in a 
small minority of the whole number, set up an altar 
which those of the western side suspected was for some 
heretical faith and worship, and were about to begin 
to wage a war of extermination, if necessary, upon them, 
for their supposed heresy. But happily, it was discov- 
ered in time to prevent much bloodshed, and probably 
the extermination of the minority of the supposed here- 
tics, that their altar was for a witness to the essential 
unity of all the tribes on both sides of Jordan however 
they might differ in some particulars of their faith and 
worship. 

And so Jordan was drawn up from between them, 
in the spiritual sense, that it might not divide them, and 
separate them in their faith and worship of One sole 
God, nor impair their unity as a people. Now all this 
is allegorical and prophetical, as well as literal and his- 
torical. It. represents and prophesies the time to come 
when all the nations of the earth shall draw up Jordan 
from between themselves and their neighbors, allowing 
neither geographical nor sectarian and denominational 
lines longer to separate between them, and they shall 
be of one faith, both politically and religiously. And 
now for what is specifically meant by these words of 
the Lord, concerning behemoth — he trusteth that he can 
draw up Jordan into his mouth. It is a foreshadowing of 
the principles and policies of the government of which 
whole behemoth is a figure, so far as religious faith and 
worship are concerned. These are toleration, without 
let, hindrance, or aid, of all within its borders, with per- 
fect freedom of thought, and of speech and practice as 
well. It was trusted by the founders of the government, 
that it might absorb and assimilate into and unto itself 
every variety and form of faith and worship which its 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 481 

members should see fit to cherish and to celebrate. The 
various denominations might themselves hold down 
whatsoever rigid lines of demarcation between each 
other, that they pleased. But the Government itself, 
trusted to obliterate them all, so far as its function was 
concerned — for an example of toleration and freedom, 
to all the world. Even so, behemoth still trusteth that 
he can draw up Jordan into his mouth — in the purely 
figurative and highly poetical language of this text from 
that Drama- of Today which the book, called Job r is. 

That "he taketh it with his eyes," signifies that the 
dream of an universal democracy in which all govern- 
ment shall be by the people, and for the people, and not 
as now, by and for a privileged few, is something beheld 
afar off, as a vision of the future, yet surely to be real- 
ized in the fullness of time, and largely credited to the 
example of this chief of the ways of God for the eman- 
cipation of mankind from political serfdom and slavery. 
It sees in itself a type and prophecy of the good time 
coming when all government shall be for the good of all 
its citizens, and a guarantor of all the God-given rights 
of man; and so, He taketh it with his eyes, prophet- 
ically, and sees it surely coming. 

Lastly : "his nose pierceth through snares." Some 
of the learned tell us that this has been wrongly trans- 
lated, so as to make it mean exactly the opposite of its 
real meaning; which is, they say, that his nose is 
pierced through with snares, or hooks ; for "This is the 
method of taking the river-ox as given in history." Still 
others, finding no fault with the translation, say it 
means that "If fences of strong stakes be made in order 
to restrain him, or prevent him from passing certain 
boundaries, he tears them in pieces with his teeth; or 
by pressing his nose against them, breaks them off." 
Thus, this revelation of the Lord is made to consist of 
the information that the hippopotamus is sometimes 



482 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

taken by sticking spears through his nose ; or of the 
important fact that sometimes he breaks off sticks that 
are set up to stop him from going where they don't want 
him to go. 

We leave the reader to judge whether or not this 
is information worthy a revelation from the Lord, and 
proceed to our interpretation of the text. The word, 
"nose," as here employed, signifies Perception ; that per- 
ception which penetrates through evil designs upon the 
life or the welfare of the subject. And as the percep- 
tion of what is hurtful or dangerous to the animal or- 
ganism is, oftener than otherwise, in the nose, or sense 
of smell, the figure of the nose of behemoth, piercing 
through snares, has here been wrought to signify the 
quick and keen perception of the political behemoth as 
to the stratagems of its enemies, or as to measures and 
policies of its misguided friends, which might be dan- 
gerous to its peace and safety, if adopted and entered 
upon. Nothing was more certain from the beginning, 
than that the behemoth of governments would be beset 
by many great and grave dangers to its very life, even ; 
and this, both from without, and from within. Among 
these, as perhaps the chief of the snares that would be 
laid for its life, would be Foreign Complications. 

And it was against whatever might lead to these, 
that the Father of his Country, on his final retirement 
from the presidency of the United States, uttered his 
most solemn warning" to Congress. Especially to avoid 
all "entangling alliances" with other nations, was his 
most earnest exhortation ; for these, he perceived, were 
the snares most likely to take and lead to the destruc- 
tion of his beloved country. And from that day to this, 
the nose of behemoth has pierced through these most 
dangerous of snares ; or perceived their danger, and 
avoided them. Then lastly, it pierced through, and rent 
asunder the Secession snare, laid for its life as one, 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 483 

united people from East to West, and from North to 
South. And it is of things like these, that it is written 
in prophecy of Behemoth of Republics, that "his nose 
pierceth through snares." And this, that it might, in 
the Providence of God, be preserved to become "the 
chief of the ways of God," leading to the Commonwealth 
of Man, and the Federation of the World. To this end 
it has been, and still is, that 

"Westward the star of empire takes its way — 
The fir^t four acts already past, 
The fifth shall close the drama with the day ; 
Time's noblest offspring is the last." 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

The Whirlwind Finished, With Description of the 
Leviathan. (Job xli.) 

This last and largest of the series of figures derived 
from the animal kingdom, in the address of the Deity 
to Job, out of the whirlwind, is based upon a general 
resemblance to any or all of the huge monsters of the 
deep, and without special reference to any one of them 
in particular. This is shown in the description of the 
subject where there are such peculiarities of structure 
and function as never could have belonged to any ani- 
mal organism whatever. This shows the need of an in- 
terpretation of the figure as a whole, which shall ex- 
plain and reconcile these discrepancies — such as that 
"His scales are shut up together as with a close seal" — • 
something that never appeared in the structure of any 
living creature. Also that "His breath kindleth 
coals . . ." — something which no creature living in 
the water ever did, or could do ; and something which 
no ingenuity can torture into a semblance of rational 
meaning", on the hypothesis that either the crocodile, or 
the whale, or any other aquatic animal is intended in 
this description of leviathan. The question of main im- 
portance is, not what particular animal is meant — for no 
one in particular is meant at all — but what is the mean- 
ing of the figure as a whole — for figure it is, and one of 
the grandest ever wrought, at that. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 485 

This, once grasped and apprehended, all these dis- 
crepancies are reconciled, and all the many and great 
difficulties o'f the text vanish away like the "smoke" 
which is said to go out of the "nostrils" of leviathan, 
and which is then seen to be a proper result of the 
kindling of coals with his "breath." For the figure, 
leviathan, is specifically, of the Iron Battleship of the 
age of Iron and Steam — or of Today. Generically, it is 
of the World-Power. Particularly, it is of the War- 
Spirit in this age of ours ; while lastly and specifically, 
it is, as stated above. Therefore, Houbigant, who in 
his day believed leviathan to be emblematical of Satan, 
was sound in his belief; for the World-Power, and the 
War-Spirit, are Satan and the Devil. And the battle- 
ship of today is a floating fortress of hell. 

But just as Ezra, the scribe, could not demonstrate 
the truth of his proposition that the book, Job, was 
"prophecy of some kind," for want as yet, of any his- 
toric correspondences to its prophetic types and figures, 
so Houbigant, the Seer, was unable to make good his 
true theory that leviathan is an emblem of Satan at 
large. It was too early in the day for either of these 
discoverers of genuine truths to make them clear in de- 
tail. But now at last the time is come for this work. 
And it is proposed now to carefully and thoroughly dis- 
sect this huge sea-beast, leviathan, from his hermet- 
ically sealed up "scales" without, to his stone-hard 
"heart" within, and to show not only what he stands for 
as a whole on the page of prophecy, but with equal clear- 
ness, what each and every one of his several parts and 
powers signify and represent, verse by verse. 

Verse 1 : 

"Canst thou draw out leviathan with an 
hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou 
lettest down? 



486 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"2. Canst thou put an hook into his nose? 
or bore his jaw through with a thorn?" 

While the allusion in these two verses is to the an- 
cient custom of putting hooks in the nose of beasts, such 
as oxen and buffaloes, to lead, guide and govern them, 
and to the noosing of the tongue of captive beasts in a 
pit, by cords let down to draw them up and out, and 
also to the practice of boring the jaws of large fishes or 
reptiles, and keeping them alive in the water until ready 
to dispatch them, by cords made fast to the shore — it is 
all for a typical use, and a representative purpose. The 
drawing out of leviathan with an hook, his tongue with 
a cord, and the boring through of his jaw, are all rep- 
resentative of his captivity ; and leviathan is "the 
dragon" that is in the deep sea of the universal human 
soul — or the World-Spirit — which is animosity to Christ. 
The capture of leviathan, then, signifies the final cap- 
tivity of the Spirit of the World, by and to the Spirit 
of Christ ; or that leading of "captivity captive," of 
which we read in Judges 5:12, and that ' . . . bring- 
ing into captivity every thought to the obedience of 
Christ," of which Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians, 10:5. 
In this way it is, that this scripture here testifies of 
Him. In further confirmation of the truth that it is of 
the World, that this is written, under the figure of levi- 
athan, see Isaiah, 37:29, where it is said by the Lord, of 
the Assyrian World-Power, 

"Because thy rage against me, and thy tu- 
mult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will 
I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in 
thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way 
which thou earnest." 

And again, in Ezekiel, 29:3, 4, of "Pharaoh, king of 
Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his 
rivers," it is said by the Lord God: 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 487 

"But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I 
will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto 
thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the 
midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers 
shall stick unto thy scales." 

Here the bringing up of Pharaoh out of the midst 
of his rivers, by a hook in his jaws, signifies the same, 
in a lesser degree, as the drawing of leviathan out of 
the sea by an hook in his mouth. And the figure of the 
great dragon, the Egyptian power, is strikingly anal- 
ogous to that of great leviathan — the World-Power — 
even to their covering of "scales." These examples 
where the context makes it perfectly clear that such 
words and phrases as dragon, mouth, jaws, scales, bri- 
dle, hook, rivers, bringing up the dragon, &c, are all 
figurative in meaning, and none of them to be taken lit- 
erally, are quoted here to suggest to the student that in 
the words, leviathan, mouth, jaw, tongue, scales, hook, 
cord, and the drawing out of leviathan, as used in this 
connection, there is also a figurative sense and mean- 
ing, and that none of them are to be accepted and un- 
derstood in the literal sense. 

Then in Psalm 74:14, we read: 

"Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in 
pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people 
inhabiting the wilderness." 

It is simply impossible to suppose that by "levia- 
than" is here meant any huge sea-beast, or land-beast, 
whatever. The word signifies precisely the same here 
as in the chapter now before us ; or the Wicked World. 
And "the heads of leviathan" are the Powers of wick- 
edness ; and "the people inhabiting the wilderness" are 
the Gentile nations of the world. And if now we have 
gained a reasonably clear idea of the meaning of levi- 



488 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

athan, as a whole figure, we shall be so much the better 
prepared for a correct understanding of its component 
parts, each of which is a figure in itself, as follows : 

Verse 3 : 

"Will he make many supplications unto 
thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?" 

This verse is the despair of all the critics, as well 
it should be on their hypothesis that by leviathan, the 
crocodile is meant. None of them have ever been able 
to explain what can possibly be meant by the making 
of many supplications, or prayers, to the patriarch Job, 
or what by speaking soft words unto him, by a croco- 
dile. But to us who know what leviathan is, and who 
Job is — that leviathan is the wicked world, and Job, the 
Christ of God, both in type and figure, this otherwise 
most obscure and unintelligible verse in the chapter, if 
not in all scripture, is a keynote to all the harmonies of 
the whole celestial song and story of Job, as those of 
the Christ to come. Here it sings and tells of how the 
wicked, in times of trouble, shall supplicate him for com- 
fort, and in their hours of anguish of spirit, shall seek 
to conciliate him whom they have despised in their pros- 
perity — as described in Proverbs 1 '27, 28 : 

"When your fear cometh as desolation, and 
your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when 
distress and anguish cometh upon you, 

"Then shall they call upon me, but I will 
not answer; they shall seek me early, but they 
shall not find me :" 

When a storm comes, the sailors fall down on the 
deck of the ship, and make their supplications to Him 
whose pleadings with them they have not heard, and 
speak "soft words" in the Name they have loudly and 
angrily profaned. When the war clouds hang low over 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 489 

the nations, or in times of great national calamities of 
any kind, then the nations are on their knees, making 
many supplications, and speaking soft words to concil- 
iate Him who is to be forgotten when the clouds are 
dispersed, or their calamities past. And these are the 
things that are signified, affirmatively in fact, though 
interrogatively in form, by this question of the Lord, 
out of the whirlwind. One of the poets of our own 
time has told the same tale, in her own way: 

"There is no God — the foolish saith — 
But none, there is no sorrow ; 
And Nature, oft the cry of Faith, 
In bitter need will borrow — 
Be pitiful, O God !" 

Verse 4: 

"Will he make a covenant Avith thee? wilt 
thou take him for a servant forever?" 

And they have the courage, born of a false pre- 
sumption, to coolly hand it out to us that here the Lord 
asks Job if he and a crocodile will make a covenant 
with each other — whether in writing, or only by word 
of mouth, they have neglected to inform us — by the 
terms of which, the crocodile is to serve his master, 
whether as a field hand, or as a housemaid, or private 
secretary, and confidential adviser, is something they 
have in the plenitude of their wisdom left us in ig- 
norance of. 

This question of the Lord, like all his other ques- 
tionings of Job, is such only in a chosen dramatic form ; 
and in this form, is an affirmation of Messianic proph- 
ecy. And what it is specifically an affirmation of, is the 
final coming of the World to the Mediator of the New 
Covenant, and through him, accepting all its terms, and 
making with him an everlasting covenant. Then 



490 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

"They shall ask the way to Zion with their 
faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join 
ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant 
that shall not be forgotten." 

Then shall leviathan "make a covenant" with Job, 
that shall stand forever — all within the Messianic mean- 
ing of this question of the Lord to Job — and he shall 
"take him for a servant forever." Meanwhile, leviathan 
must have his way, his own way, as it appears to him 
to be ; yet, that the world, in all its ways and works is 
under the direction and control of him to whom the 
Father "hath committed all judgment," is preindicated 
in the next following verse. 

Verse 5 : 

"Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? 
or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?" 

Here, they tell us, the Lord asks Job if he will take 
and tame a crocodile and make a pet and playmate of 
him for his own amusement — letting him perch upon 
his forefinger, perhaps, and occasionally tossing him up 
in the air, to watch his flutterings a spell, and then pull 
him down with a string attached to one of his legs. Or 
will he prefer to tie him up, probably strapping or 
roping his huge jaws together, and lashing his enormous 
tail to his side, to prevent him from doing any harm to 
anyone, and then turning him over to the young women 
of his family to amuse themselves with their dangerous 
playfellow as best they may? If those who have never 
read a commentary on Job, can believe it, this is practi- 
cally what the critics tell us is meant by these words 
of the Lord, spoken from out the midst of a whirlwind, 
and addressed to his servant, Job. Great leviathan— 
"Hugest of beasts that swim the ocean stream," as the 
poet Milton calls him — taken and played with as one 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 491 

might play with a bird; or tied up, and given to girl 
children for their pastime and sport ! ! ! While all this 
is the most terrible stuff imaginable, still it is the best 
and the only thing derivable from the senseless hypoth- 
esis that by leviathan is meant the crocodile. 

What, then, can be the meaning of playing with 
leviathan as with a bird, or of binding him for the maid- 
ens, as these terms are used in this connection? In the 
first place, the figure is derived from the ancient cus- 
tom, prevalent at the courts of kings, and other places 
of public amusement, of tying strings, long and strong, 
to the legs of large birds, such as falcons, or eagles, and 
then letting : them soar as far skyward as the length of 
the string allowed, and then guiding them this way and 
that, like miniature ships of the sky. And now, for the 
use and application of this figure to leviathan, it is this : 
We are now, in the time-order of this ancient piece of 
Messianic prophecy, in the midst of the great institu- 
tions, enterprises, and marvellous inventions and con- 
structions of our own immediate part of the whole To- 
day, of the Christian Era. And here, playing with levi- 
athan, as with a bird, a large bird let loose to sail in 
the upper air, yet under control and guidance of its 
master, is an aptly chosen figure for the World Science 
of Aviation, or navigation of the sea of the sky, by 
means of airships. The forecast of this great act in the 
Drama of Today, is placed here in connection with that 
of the navigation of the sea by vessels driven by steam 
— specifically, battleships — because these, as events of 
history, were to be vitally related to and practically con- 
nected with each other; hence, their types and figures 
are closely related to each other on the page of the 
prophetic drama. And it is this orderly relation of the 
prophetic shadows to the historic substances through- 
out, that enables us to preserve a time-order in our in- 
terpretation of them ; and so to know when, as well as 



492 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

where, to look for their correspondences on the page 
of fulfilling history. 

Lastly, in this connection, who, or what, are the 
"maidens," of which the Lord asks Job if he will bind 
leviathan for them? and what is meant by the binding 
of leviathan to their use and service? These questions 
have always been asked, but never answered until now; 
but now, having learned at last who Job is, or rather, 
what he is — that he is a type and figure of the Christ — 
the answer is comparatively easy to make : They are 
the "maidens" of the Christ ; and still there is poetry 
enough left, to be reduced to prose : Who, or what, are 
the maidens of Christ? First of all, the figure of bind- 
ing leviathan for the maidens of Job, is also formed from 
an old custom of victorious kings, or conquerors in war, 
of binding their captives, and bringing- them home to 
turn some of the best favored among them over to the 
women of the court or household, to become their 
servants. 

Out of this ancient custom, known to him, the 
world's greatest poet and prophet of the Messiah, 
wrought this ftgure of Christ's conquest of the world, 
and as its conqueror, binding his captive by the terms 
of the "covenant," of the verse above, to the service of 
his people forever. Earth may build on Earth, temples 
and towers; and Earth may say to Earth: "All shall 
be ours." But at the last, the meek shall inherit the 
earth, with all its temples and towers. And these are 
they who are signified by the "maidens" of Job — the 
meek ones of Christ. We may find confirmation of the 
symbolical use, and spiritual meaning of the word 
"maidens," as used here, in the 9th chapter of Prov- 
erbs, where Wisdom is personified as a woman who has 
"builded her house," and "killed her beasts," and 
"mingled her wine," and "furnished her table." Then : 
"She hath sent forth her maidens" to call the simple, 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 493 

and him that wanteth understanding, to come and eat 
of her bread, and drink of the wine which she has 
mingled. This is typical of the call of Christ to the un- 
converted; and the maidens whom Wisdom sends forth 
to call to her feast, are identically the same as the maid- 
ens of Job, who in type and figure, is the Wisdom of 
God, or the Christ. 

Verse 6 : 

"Shall the companions make a banquet of 
him? shall they part him among the mer- 
chants?" 

We are told that by "the companions," is meant a 
squad of crocodile hunters, and that what the Lord 
wants to know of Job, is whether they will fall to and 
eat him up when they have captured him, or cut him 
in pieces and peddle him out to the dealers in crocodile 
skins and carcasses. Disgraceful as the alternative is, 
they must either accept it, or give it up ; and they pre- 
fer of the two, to accept it. i\nd what else could they 
make of it, reasoning from their false hypothesis as to 
what is meant by leviathan, to begin with? The reason- 
ing is straightforward and faultless ; but the premises 
being false, they are helplessly led to the above de- 
scribed insane and utterly absurd conclusion therefrom. 

Heretofore, leviathan has been discoursed upon as 
the W r orld-Power at large. Here in this verse, the dis- 
course comes to the consideration of the subject spe- 
cifically as the Sea-Power, and to its prowess in the line 
of Naval Architecture during the Iron Age. It is in 
allusion to the building of huge battleships of iron, and 
motored by steam, together with a Merchant Marine in 
proportion therewith, and the celebration of its tri- 
umphs therein by grand banquets — here collectively 
called "a banquet" — that it is here asked: "Shall the 
companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him 



494 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

among the merchants?" Parting him among the mer- 
chants signifies a wise and equitable distribution of the 
sea-power between the navy and the merchant marine; 
for "The children of this world are wiser in their gen- 
eration than the children of light." 

These "companions" themselves, we are told, "are 
partners, supposed to be associated in the hunting, cap- 
ture and sale of the crocodile." But the reference is to 
partners associated in the building and launching of the 
huge leviathans of the deep, in our own today, and the 
celebration of their success, with festivities according 
to the greatness and perfection thereof. In the Song of 
Solomon, under the heading of "The mutual love of 
Christ and his church," it is written : "He brought me 
to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was 
love." But here, where "the companions make a ban- 
quet" of leviathan, the banner over them is not love, 
but pride. And their parting him among the merchants, 
is not peddling pieces of crocodile meat to buyers, but 
striking a balance between the naval and commercial 
enterprises of the sea power of leviathan, the World 
Power, that they may mutually protect and support each 
other until the end which an overruling Providence has 
in view for them, shall be accomplished in them. 

Verse 7 : 

"Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? 
or his head with fish spears?" 

This, they tell us, "refers to some kind of harpoon 
work, similar to that employed in taking whales, and 
which they might use for some other kinds of animals." 
And undoubtedly it does ; for every figure in prophecy 
is based upon, or derived from some custom, circum- 
stance, or fact of history. And it is a fact of history that 
harpoons and spears have been employed in taking 
whales, and some other kinds of animals also. But a great 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 495 

prophet, who is also a great poet, does not refer to such 
things for their own sake, but for the use he can make of 
them for some representative purpose which he has in 
view. He is also at liberty to add something of his own 
to the facts of record which he uses for his purpose, 
when, as often occurs, they are not sufficient of them- 
selves for that purpose. This has been done here in 
the writer's reference to the capture of sea monsters 
by barbed irons and fish spears ; for it is not of record 
that their skins have ever been literally filled with the 
one, or their heads with the other ; a very few of either 
suffices; often one or two will do the work. Yet here 
he offers the suggestion of filling the skin and head of 
leviathan with these weapons — an uncalled for thing in 
the capture of such creatures as whales or crocodiles. 
The explanation of this seeming extravagance is easy, 
now that we know that the final reference is to the "skin" 
and the "head" of the leviathan of iron. These are fig- 
urative terms, as here used; the "skin" of this leviathan, 
signifies the extreme outer covering of the iron levia- 
than, just as it does in the case of the living subject. 
Then, the head, signifies the forward part of the vessel, 
or- the bow. This makes the figures both of character- 
istic excellence. Then, the filling of the one with barbed 
irons, and the other with fish spears, are references under 
these figures, to the mode of construction of the iron 
steamship of today. The metallic plates which compose 
the "skin," are thickly perforated from edge to edge, and 
from end. to end, witli holes. These, when the plates 
are put in place, are filled with bolts of red hot iron 
to hold them in place ; and these are "barbed" at the 
inner end to prevent withdrawal, just as is a harpoon, 
to serve the same purpose ; and here again, the figure is 
simply perfect. 

In this way, the skin of leviathan is literally filled 
with "barbed irons," throughout his entire dimensions. 



49G THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

At the bow, where the "skin" is much thicker and 
heavier than along the hull, larger and longer, and much 
heavier bolts are used. And these are what are repre- 
sented by the fish spears with which the head of levia- 
than is symbolically said to be filled ; and now, the whole 
figure is perfect and complete. The main purpose of this 
verse, with its figurative description of the mode of con- 
struction of the leviathan of iron and steam, so far as 
it goes, seems to be to aid and assist in the final identi- 
fication of the real subject of this sublime discourse of 
the Lord to Job, out of the whirlwind, as it is dramat- 
ically rendered by the author — himself the author and 
composer of it all, under divine inspiration and direction. 

Verse 8 : 

/'Lay thine hand upon him, remember the 
battle, do no more." 

This, if accepted in the literal sense of the words, 
can mean nothing but that the Lord here advises Job to 
wade, or swim, out to meet a crocodile in the water, and 
to lay his hand on some part of the monster's anatomy, 
and then pause and reflect upon the probable outcome 
of a battle between him and the crocodile, and do no 
more to him than merely to lay his hand upon him. And 
it is accepted in the literal sense of the words, just as 
they read, without an effort at interpretation by most, if 
not all of the self-denominated "critics" of the Word of 
God ; and truly the situation is a critical one for Job, if 
he does what he is supposed to be advised to do by the 
Lord, which he never was. And it is an outrage upon 
simple common sense to suppose that such advice as 
this was ever given by the Lord to Job, or to any person 
whatever — to take so fearful a risk, when nothing was 
to be gained by it, and when it could all be avoided by 
simply staying out of the water, and out of the way of 
the crocodile. Interpretation, is what is needed in order 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 497 

to make wisdom out of this counsel of the Lord to 
Job ; for to accept it in the literal sense of its words, is 
to deprive it of all wisdom; whereas, in its true intent, 
it is replete with a wisdom far above and beyond that 
of man. This is a great verse, going deep into the wis- 
dom and the way of an overruling Providence in re- 
straint of the ways and works of man. 

This is what is signified in these words of the Lord 
to Job : "Lay thine hand upon him" — that is, upon 
leviathan, the World Power. Restrain it from going 
beyond the limits prescribed by the Supreme Pow r er, the 
Almighty. In this small verse is implied all that is con- 
tained in the 10th verse of Psalm 76: 

"Surely the wrath of man shall praise 
thee : the remainder of wrath shalt thou re- 
strain." 

We are come now, in the time-order of the prophecy, 
to the historic time of the manifestation of "the wrath of 
man" in the building of big battleships, and the vieing 
of the nations with each other in the construction and 
equipment of great navies — each with the view to guard- 
ing and advancing its own interests, and not the neigh- 
bor's interest or welfare. This is the World Spirit ; this 
is Leviathan. This is a self-destructive spirit ; and if 
left to itself, without restraint from a Spirit purer, bet- 
ter and more powerful than itself, the world would rush 
madly to its own destruction in the blindness of its own 
selfish ambitions. There is such a Spirit; and this is 
his word to him who came to save the world — Lay thine 
hand upon him — which signifies : Restrain the remainder 
of his wrath, lest he destroy himself — remembering the 
battle for which the world is building its mighty battle- 
ships, and congregating its great navies. And "do no 
more," means: Suffer not the War Spirit to go farther 
than will redound to the glory of God, at the last. This, 



498 THT NEW BOOK OF JOB 

in part at least, is the real and true significance of this 
powerfully compacted formula of Messianic prophecy : 

"Lay thine hand upon him, remember the 
battle, do no more." 

Verse 9 : 

"Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall 
not one be cast down even at the sight of him?'' 

The first word of this verse: "Behold," itself sig- 
nifies something extraordinary to follow ; it is the same 
as to say, Look ! See ! After all his many and great 
preparations for the accomplishment of his purpose, the 
hope of leviathan is in vain. What then is his hope? 
and how is it in vain? Leviathan is the World; and the 
hope of the world is to prevail by power and might ; and 
to set up and maintain its kingdoms thereby ; whereas, 
the "Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giv- 
eth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth over it the 
basest of men." And this, "That men may know that 
thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the Most 
High over all the earth." Therefore it is written here 
that the hope of leviathan, which is to prevail by his 
own power, and by his own might, "is in vain." 

This, however, is specific in its reference to the gath- 
ering together of vast armies, and the construction of 
great navies by the world powers in these "latter days," 
in which we are now living, each in the vain hope to 
exalt, and to maintain itself, and its place and power 
among the nations by its own power, and its own might 
— forgetting, or never knowing', that the Most High 
ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomso- 
ever he will. And as specific evidence of the stupendous 
preparations now being made for the coming conflict 
of the nations, the prophet points to the battle ship of 
today, in the words: "shall not one be cast down even at 



THE NEW BOOK O^ JOB 499 

the sight of him?" And truly, the very sight of this ter- 
rific monster of the deep, with its impression of the awful 
power embodied in it, is enough to cast "one" down with 
a sense of the impotence of the individual, as contrasted 
with the manifestation of the World Power he sees in this 
floating mountain of iron. Yes, one shall be cast down 
even at the sight of him, as many have realized, in ample, 
though unconscious justification of these words of the 
prophet of the things of today. 

Verse 10: 

"None is so fierce that dare stir him up : 
Avho then is able to stand before me?" 

The fulfillment of this prophecy, which treats of 
things future, as though present, is found in the known 
circumstance that in our day the whole world stands in a 
wholesome dread of the stirring up of the War Spirit. 
"The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out wa- 
ter," says the proverb ; there is no telling where it will 
run, or what mischief it may do. And in our day, when 
every nation has its navy equipped and ready at notice 
to steam to any part of the world, the beginning of inter- 
national strife is as when a great reservoir breaks its 
dam; or as when a mighty, river overflows its banks.- 
It is impossible to foresee how far, and how wide it may 
extend and spread its desolations. So, when the war 
spirit of leviathan — the World Power — is once stirred up 
and let loose, as between any two nations, no matter 
how relatively small and insignificant they both may be, 
the peace of the world is endangered ; for there is no 
foreknowing what complications may arise out of the 
struggle, or what other nations may become involved 
in it. Hence, the fear and the dread of the stirring up 
of leviathan is so universal in our day, that the prophet 
of the things thereof has here given it the strong expres- 
sion of : "None is so fierce that dare stir him up." The 



500 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

last clause of the verse — "who then is able, to stand be- 
fore me ?" — scarcely requires comment ; it is self-explan- 
atory to the effect that if the wrath of leviathan is some- 
thing to be dreaded, so that none is certain to be able to 
stand before him, who then is able to stand before the 
Almighty? 

Verse 11 : 

"Who hath prevented me, that I should 
repay him? whatsoever is under the whole 
heaven is mine." 

In Psalm 88:13, we find this: "But unto thee have 
I cried, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer 
prevent thee'' — or come before thee. This shows the 
true sense of the word, "prevented," as used in this verse 
— which is : Who has come before me to place me in 
debt to him, that I should repay him, since everything 
under the whole heaven is mine. Even the battle ship 
is his to command ; and because it is his, he says of it in 
the next verse, which is Verse 12 : 

"I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, 
nor his comely proportion." 

From the beginning of the building of the modern 
navy, it has been the policy of each nation to conceal the 
plans and specifications for the construction of its war 
vessels from every other nation, in the hope to prevent 
them, as far as possible, from taking advantage of any 
improvements it may have made in the way of fighting 
efficiency in their construction ; and so to steal a march 
on its rivals in the race for supremacy in the building 
of battleships, great or small. But this has been found 
to be practically impossible ; for it had been written of 
old, over and against each new leviathan of the deep, 
that God would not suffer any of its parts or powers to 
be concealed, although every possible effort should be 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 501 

made by man to shroud them in mystery. The follow- 
ing extract from a late public print will be a sufficient 
illustration of the historic fulfillment in our day, of this 
ancient bit of prophecy concerning the battleship, and 
the publicity of the particulars of its construction, in 
spite of every precaution taken to conceal them : 

"A Gigantic Warship." 

Because the British admiralty had taken such pre- 
cautions to preserve secrecy in the construction of the 
Lion, the latest addition to the English navy, it was 
called the Mystery Ship. In point of displacement, 
speed, gun-power, armor protection, and torpedo equip- 
ment, it is said to be superior to anything projected by 
foreign powers. The length of the vessel is 700 feet, 
beam 88^ feet, displacement 26,000 tons. The engines 
are equal to 70,000 horse power. The cost of the ship is 
over $10,000,000. This cruiser is the first to carry a 
number of 13.5 guns, eight of which are mounted in pairs 
on the central line of the ship. The guns are so ranged 
that they can be trained ahead, astern, or abeam. They 
can send a projectile weighing 1,250 pounds a. distance 
of 20 miles. The armor of the Lion can resist a shell 
fired two miles away with a force equal to that required 
to lift 40,000 tons weight twelve inches from the ground. 
The speed of the Lion is thirty knots. It is to be hoped 
that God will sanctify these gigantic engines of war to 
the ushering in of a more lasting peace than the' nations 
have ever known. "And he shall set engines of war 
against thy walls." (Ezek., 26:9.) 

The above quoted description will give the general 
reader an idea of the "parts, power," and "comely pro- 
portion" of the gigantic engine of modern warfare which 
is here a specific subject of prophecy in the oldest book 
of the Bible ; and of what is specifically meant by these 
words of the Lord, concerning it : "I will not conceal his 



502 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion." And, 
as well, how, and in what way and manner his promise 
has been, and is being kept in our own day and time. 

Verse 13: 

"Who can discover the face of his garment? 

or who can come to him with his double 

bridle ?" 

Here, "the face of his garment," signifies the inner 
surface of the outer covering, or "skin" of leviathan, 
This is compared to the facing, or lining of a garment. 
The skin of a crocodile can be readily taken off, after 
he is killed, and the "face of his garment" plainly discov- 
ered ; and so can that of any other great and strong 
beast, however hard and thick it may be. But who can 
come to the huge sea-beast, leviathan, and discover the 
face of his garment in that way? The purpose of this 
interrogation of the Lord's, to Job, to which a negative 
answer is clearly implied — no one can — is plainly to 
differentiate the subject from all living creatures, every 
one of which can have the face of his garment "discov- 
ered" — within the meaning of the word as here employed, 
but it is not so with great leviathan ; his garment is filled 
with barbed irons for the express purpose of discovering 
the face thereof. In this way, again, the distinction be- 
tween leviathan and every form of animal life is drawn. 

Then the figure of the "double bridle" is intended to 
signify any apparatus of extraordinary strength which 
may be used to govern the brute creation, and to imply 
that it would be of no avail for the control of leviathan ; 
he is a creature far beyond control by any of the methods 
sufficient for the strongest of the animal creation. This 
is the idea conveyed by this whole verse. 

Verse 14: 

"Who can open the doors of his face? his 
teeth are terrible, round about." 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 503 

Here his "face" signifies the whole outside covering 
of the leviathan of iron ; then "the doors" of his face 
signify the solidly joined plates of armor which all to- 
gether make up his face. The main problem of the battle 
when it is on, is how to open these doors of his face and 
so, to sink the ship. The very form of the question, 
"who can," implies the greatness of the problem. If the 
crocodile had been intended in this query, the "doors 
of his fa^e" could have signified nothing but his jaws. 
These, any one can open by simply tossing him a piece 
of flesh. Then the question, "who can," would have 
been pointless. As it is, it involves the main problem 
of the battle between the huge iron leviathans of the 
deep, and much more with it. His "teeth"' so terrible 
round about, are an apt figure for the great guns of the 
battleship, which are ranged entirely round about the 
length and breadth of the ship, and project like enor- 
mous teeth out of a mouth for each tooth, in every direc- 
tion around and about, and so are truly terrible "round 
about," as the text declares them to be. Other scripture 
than this uses the figure of "teeth" for man-made weap- 
ons of war. In Isaiah, 41:15, we read: "Behold, I will 
make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having 
teeth : thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them 
small, and shalt make the hills as chaff." Here the 
mountains that are to be threshed are the world-powers ; 
and he to whom this is promised, is the Christ. Then 
the new sharp threshing instrument having teeth, is pre- 
cisely the same thing that is described here in Job, under 
the figure of leviathan ; and as having teeth that are "ter- 
rible round about"— the iron built battleship of today. 

Verse 15: 

"His scales are his pride, shut up together 
as with a close seal." 



504 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Verse 16: 

"One is so near to another that no air can 
come between them." 

Verse 17 : 

"They are joined one to another, they stick 
together that they cannot be sundered." 

That this peculiar arrangement of the scales of 
leviathan does not apply to any fish or reptile, small or 
great, is obvious at a glance ; everybody knows that the 
sole, or main purpose, in dividing the protective armor 
of fishes and reptiles into separate small sections, or 
scales, is to permit of their free play upon each other, 
and of their separation fram each other, as the creature 
performs its evolutions in the water, or on the land. 
Yet here is. a creature of enormous size, inhabiting the 
deep sea, and covered with scales, all of which are "shut 
up together as with a close seal," and "stick together, 
that they cannot be sundered" — thus defeating the prin- 
cipal, or sole purpose of the division of his armor into 
separate parts, or scales. This alone should satisfy us 
that by the leviathan, no scaly monster that ever inhab- 
ited the deep sea, or the dry land, is meant. 

And now that we know what is really meant by 
leviathan, the explanation of this strange anomaly in 
the account of his construction — which it would be, were 
it of any creature living, or that ever lived — becomes 
easy. The Hebrew equivalent of the word, translated 
"scales," is strong shields. And truly, the strong shields 
of the leviathan of iron "are his pride," in the imputed 
sense of the term, pride, to a thing incapable of pride, 
in itself. The "scales" then, of the leviathan of the text, 
are the armor-plates of the hull of the battleship of iron 
and. steam, of which the partly imagined creature called 
leviathan, is a chosen figure, And now the seemingly 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 505 

strange anomaly of the shutting up together as with a 
close seal, of the scales of leviathan, and of their being 
stuck together, "that they cannot be sundered," ceases 
to be such as soon as the application is made as intended, 
to the armor-plates of the iron-clad war ship, as now 
constructed ; and well might it be said of this leviathan 
that "his scales are his pride," inseparably joined one 
to another, so different from those of all other scaly 
monsters of the deep, since it is upon this same peculiar, 
and altogether exceptional arrangement of his scales, or 
"shields," that the safety and fighting efficiency of the 
whole stupendous craft depends. In fact also, it is the 
perfection to which the armor plating of the battleship 
of today has been brought, that is considered the peculiar 
pride of the naval architecture of the times ; everything 
else is comparatively easy; guns, power, speed. But to 
so shield the whole tremendous piece of mechanism that 
it can resist the impact of a shell weighing 1,250 pounds, 
and striking it with a force equal to that required to lift 
40,000 tons twelve inches from the ground — this is the 
crowning achievement, and the pride and glory of it all. 

If then, this is a true and correct interpretation of 
these three verses, descriptive and eulogistic of the 
strength of the "scales" of leviathan, as it most assuredly 
is, what foresight, what absolute and perfect foreknowl- 
edge of things to come in the far off future, such as be- 
long only to God, is assured to us in them. 

Verse 18 : 

"By his neesings a light doth shine, and his 
eyes are like the eyelids of the morning." 

It may be true that the Egyptians made the eyes of 
the crocodile an emblem of the morning — small and dull 
as they are, and as we are told that they did. But it is 
certain that our author has not done so here; he is by 
far too great and true a poet to make use of so poor and 



506 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

feeble a simile as that. His comparisons are always just 
and fitting ; and his correspondences, close and exact ; 
and there is nothing like closeness of correspondence to 
the lighting up of' the whole eastern horizon at the open- 
ing of "the eyelids of the morning," in the sparkling of 
the eyes of a crocodile when he first comes up out of the 
water, as the critics of this verse tell us they sparkle 
then "with the greatest vivacity." They also tell us 
that by the "neesings" of leviathan, is meant the sneez- 
ings of the crocodile ; and by the light that "doth shine" 
by the neesings of leviathan, is meant the appearance of 
light in the particles of water coming- out of the croco- 
dile's nose. In a word, that here the Lord has come in 
the midst of a mighty whirlwind to tell Job how things 
are lighted up and around, when a crocodile sneezes ! 

It is even such terrible stuff as this, or nothing, that 
they must needs hand out to us from their false hypoth- 
esis as to what is meant by leviathan, to begin with ; for 
nothing more or better than this can be made of the text, 
on that hypothesis, by anyone. What is signified by the 
"neesings" of leviathan, by which, "a light doth shine," 
is the exhausts from the smoke and fire escapes of the 
steam-motored leviathan, which from their force and vol- 
ume resemble the belchings forth of fire and flame from 
the crater of a small volcano ; and by which "neesings," 
literally "a light doth shine." While this circumstance 
is, in itself, of no more significance than the glittering 
spray around the nose of a crocodile, when he "neeses," 
it serves the purpose to show what kind of creature this 
light-giving leviathan is, by means of his "neesings" — 
that it is one at the expiration of whose every breath "a 
light doth shine," a phenomenon which does not attend 
the expirations, sudden or slow, of any living creature, 
great or small. 

His "eyes," which are said to be "like the eyelids 
of the morning," are the light-exits of the ship, when at 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 507 

night it is lighted up within. These, at regular distances 
apart, and extending from bow to stern on both sides, 
unitedly shed a broad glow of light down on the water ; 
and this, when at night the huge craft at almost any dis- 
tance appears to be on the edge of the horizon, looks as 
though the morning had opened its "eyelids," and was 
shedding its light down through the darkness upon a wide 
expanse of the sea below; the ship itself, being invisible. 
This is the basis of the grand and beautiful figure of the 
eyes of leviathan being "like the eyelids of the morning." 

Verse 19: 

"Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and 
sparks of fire leap out." 

This, with the clue to its meaning already had, re- 
quires very little study for a right understanding of its 
purport. Only the two words, "mouth," and "lamps," 
are figurative; all the rest is literal. His "mouth" signi- 
fies the open place where the fuel is fed into the ship's 
furnace ; and the "burning lamps" which are said to go 
out therefrom, are simply globes of fire, resembling 
bowls lit up within, and which go up and out of the 
furnace mouth, as literally as "sparks of fire leap out." 

Verse 20: 

"Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of 
a seething pot or caldron." 

For "nostrils," substitute "funnels," or "smoke- 
stacks," as the chimneys of the steamship are usually 
called, and the whole secret of this verse is out. The 
comparison — "as out of a seething pot or caldron" — 
signifies steadily and continuously, while the fire burns 
and the fuel lasts, just as the vapor resembling smoke, 
rises from a pot or kettle of boiling water so long as the 
fire burns, and the water boils. This effectually dis- 
poses of the theory of the schoolmen, that this refers 



508 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

to what happens when a crocodile comes up from under 
water and suddenly snorts, "causing an appearance re- 
sembling smoke from his nostrils." This, however true 
as a fact, does not correspond to the steady and continu- 
ous flow of vapor "out of a seething pot or caldron" — 
as does the going of smoke out of the funnels of the 
ship ; and which is no mere appearance, resembling 
smoke, but is smoke itself. 

Verse 21 : 

"His breath kindleth coals, and a flame 
goeth out of his mouth." 

This verse has for long been the despair of the 
critics, as well it might be ; for there is no possible way 
of explaining what can be meant by the kindling of 
coals by the breath of a crocodile. Neither is it at all 
surprising that they have never been able to explain 
it ; for their commentaries on Job were all written when 
as yet there was nothing in existence corresponding to 
the figure ; and as they could not pretend to accept it 
as a literal fact, they have been obliged to give it up as 
something beyond the ability of mortal man to explain, 
or to account for it in any way. But now, since the 
battleship, motored by steam, and fueled with coal, has 
taken its place on the historic page of the drama of to- 
day, this heretofore inexplicable figure of prophecy is 
among the easiest of them all to understand, and to 
make the intended application thereof. 

In view of what has gone before, the reader has 
already discovered that the word, "breath," here signi- 
fies, draught ; and that "mouth," means the receptacle 
for the coal that the draught kindles in the furnace of 
the huge craft of iron which here stands before us in the 
figure of leviathan. And now, the flame that goes "out 
of his mouth," together with the "burning lamps," and 
the sparks of fire that "leap out," along with the smoke 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 



509 




510 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

that goes out of his "nostrils," and the light that shines 
by his neesings, are all clearly seen to be the natural 
and proper results from the kindling of coals by the 
"breath" of leviathan, as we now know and understand 
what is meant by the figure that is so called. 

Verse 22 : 

"In his neck remaineth strength, and sor- 
row is turned into joy before him." 

What is meant by the turning of sorrow into joy 
before leviathan, has always been nearly, or quite as 
vexed, a problem as that of the kindling of coals by his 
breath, inasmuch as the one would seem to be about as 
difficult a task as the other, for a crocodile to undertake 
and accomplish. Then, another difficulty is met, but 
not overcome, in the acknowledged fact, by the com- 
mentators, that "the crocodile has no neck, being shaped 
like a lizard with his head joined directly to his shoul- 
ders." The word, 'meek," is used here in the same sym- 
bolical sense as in the question asked of Job by the Lord, 
concerning the horse: "Hast thou clothed 'his neck with 
thunder?" It was explained in that connection, that 
the word, neck, there signified the seat and source of 
strength, or power — not of the horse of flesh ; but of 
the horse of iron. Here, the significance of the remain- 
ing of strength in the neck of leviathan, is in the pre- 
dicted truth that in the world there will always remain 
that knowledge, which is power, that is now in it. Then, 
what is signified by sorrow being turned into joy before 
leviathan, is this : That the time will come when the 
intellectual power of the world will be diverted from 
its present course in the building and equipment of the 
armaments of war, such as battleships, and will be con- 
verted to the promotion of the arts and enterprises of 
Peace. Then, sorrow will be "turned into joy before 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 511 

him," or by means of him, as here foretold in the 
chosen way of the drama. 

It is, in this way, substantially the same prediction 
as that by the prophet Isaiah, in this way : 

"And he shall judge among the nations, 
and shall rebuke many people ; and they shall 
beat their swords into plowshares, and their 
spears into pruning hooks : nation shall not lift 
up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more." 

The same science, art, and constructive skill, once 
employed and displayed in the making of implements of 
war, still remains with them, with the difference that 
now they are employed in the turning of them into im- 
plements of peace; and so, turning sorrow into joy. The 
same thing is signified here, namely : That after he has 
judged among the nations, and rebuked many people 
for their war-making propensities, they shall beat their 
battleships in pieces, and build of them, all ocean-sail- 
ing and flower-wreathed argosies of peace ; and this, by 
the same strength, still remaining with them, by which 
heretofore they reared up gigantic engines of war. So, 
"In his neck remaineth strength;" and so, even so, 
"sorrow is turned into joy before him." 

Verse 23 : 

"The flakes of his flesh are joined together: 
they are firm in themselves ; they cannot be 
moved." 

The "flakes of his flesh," is simply a figure for the 
component parts of the leviathan of iron. That they 
are "joined together," signifies the solidity and whole 
compactness of the immense structure ; and this, in dis- 
tinction from the various parts of the muscular system 
of the animal organism, which are not joined together, 



512 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

but are separate from each other, and each capable of 
separate and independent action of its own. Not so with 
leviathan ; the flakes of his "flesh" are all solidly joined 
together, so far as the main body of the structure ex- 
tends ; and this, necessarily so in order to insure whole 
strength. They are not designed for separate action, 
but for passive unity, unlike the flakes of the flesh of 
the animal body. Were any animal, man included, con- 
structed on this principle, it or he, could not move a 
muscle without the instant co-operation of its, or his, 
whole muscular system. Neither are the "'flakes of his 
flesh," of any animal whatever, "firm in themselves ;" 
but are all dependent for what firmness they temporarily 
possess, upon a force outside of themselves, namely : 
Nerve force ; when and while this force is present in 
them, they are comparatively firm and strong; but when 
this is withdrawn, they become soft and weak again. 
But the flakes of this leviathan's flesh are necessarily 
"firm in themselves," not being designed to move or 
be moved separately, but all unitedly as one. They are 
composed of solid metal ; and are, therefore, "firm in 
themselves." Moreover, "they cannot be moved ;" that 
is, they cannot move or be moved as living tissue is 
moved by the will power of the living subject. Levia- 
than, therefore, is not a living animal organism of any 
possible kind; but is a stupendous piece of humanly con- 
trived and constructed mechanism — here described 
under a figure based upon a general resemblance to any 
one of the huge monsters of the deep, but with radical 
deviations from the anatomy and physiology of every 
one of them all, as here in the unity, as one, of "the 
flakes of his flesh," their firmness in themselves, and 
lastly, their complete immobility. In truth, this verse, 
with its particular description of the strange peculiari- 
ties of the structure of the subject, is expressly designed 
to differentiate it from any and all members of the ani- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 513 

mal kingdom.; and this, it only lacks what follows in the 
next verse, to most thoroughly and completely do. 

Verse 24: 

"His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as 
hard as a piece of the nether millstone." 

The nether, or lower, millstone, is chosen for its 
purpose out of the hardest rock possible to find; and for 
this reason, the nether millstone has here been chosen 
for a symbol of the extreme hardness of this leviathan's 
heart. And in view of the discovered truth and literal 
fact that he is constructed of solid metal throughout, 
we should naturally look for his heart to be as hard as 
any other part of his anatomy. And it only remains 
now to ascertain what is here represented by "his 
heart," this, happily, is not far to seek, nor hard to find. 
It is the powerful Engine of the leviathan of iron and 
steam, which, from its location centrally in the struc- 
ture, and from its distribution of the motive power 
thereof, much after the way in which the heart does the 
same thing in the living animal organism, goes far to 
justify this noble figure, and to make its application 
easy and sure, without, under all the circumstances, the 
possibility of making a mistake. 

Verse 25 : 

"When he raiseth up himself, the mighty 
are afraid : by reason of breakings they purify 
themselves." 

Dr. Cowles calls — "by reason of breakings they 
purify themselves" — "The unintelligible clause;" and 
makes no effort to render it intelligible. Dr. Clarke 
says : "No version, either ancient or modern, appears 
to have understood this verse ; nor is its true sense 
known." And ends by saying: "The translations of it 
are as unsatisfactory as they are various." To us, the 



514 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

translation, as we have it in the Authorized Version, is 
quite satisfactory; in fact, it renders the intent of the 
original with admirable clearness, when correctly inter- 
preted. And while it is strictly true that no version, 
either ancient or modern, ever understood this verse, it 
is no longer true that its true sense is not known, as we 
shall endeavor to show. What is signified by, "When 
he raiseth up himself,!' is not, when a crocodile raises 
himself up to combat his foes; it is the raising up of 
itself on the part of the War Spirit of the World Power, 
thereby endangering the peace of the world, that this 
is written. Then it is, that "the mighty are afraid" — 
both within the meaning of these true words of the text, 
and in the strictest and most literal sense of the terms. 
Complications of themselves in a struggle not begin- 
ning with themselves, is what "the mighty" — the world 
powers — are afraid of. And even with those who them- 
selves begin it, there is much reason to be afraid; for 
none can foresee what disastrous an ending there may 
be of a war begun by themselves. 

Then, for what is signified in the obscure clause — 
by reason of breakings they purify themselves — see 
Isaiah, 26:9, where the same thing is said, but in unmis- 
takable terms. There, the prophet, under the heading of 
A song inciting to confidence in God, for his judg- 
ments, and for his favour to his people, says : "for when 
thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the 
world will learn righteousness." What is there called 
"judgments," are here called "breakings ;" and what is 
there said to be, to "learn righteousness," is here said 
to be, to "purify themselves." The meaning is iden- 
tically the same in these two passages from these two 
true prophets of identically the same things concerning 
the establishment of righteousness in the earth, and the 
purification of its people from their sins by means of 
the "judgments" and the "breakings" of the Almighty. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 515 

And now at last, in the fullness of time necessary for 
this purpose, the true sense of this, one of the most ob- 
scure verses of the Bible, is known, or may be known 
to all ; whereas, until now it has never been known to 
any. 

Verse 26: 

"The sword of him that layeth at him can- 
not hold : the spear, the dart, nor the haber- 
geon." 

Verse 27 : 

"He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass 
as rotten wood." 

Verse 28: 

"The arrow cannot make him flee : sling 
stones are turned with him into stubble." 

Verse 29: 

"Darts are counted as stubble : he laugh- 
eth at the shaking of a spear." 

In a word, none of all the hand-made, and hand- 
used weapons ever employed for the destruction of the 
huge beasts of the sea, such as whales, or of the rivers, 
such as crocodiles, can make any impression on the in- 
vulnerable hide of leviathan. i\nd the long time secret 
of all this, is now out : he is iron clad. And why, even 
supposing that by leviathan some living creature were 
meant, should such great pains be taken to discriminate 
and distinguish between it and all other living creatures 
in the matter of its invulnerability to attack by means 
of so many different kinds of weapons as are here spe- 
cifically named? And this, without any obvious moral 
attached to the information, without which, the informa- 
tion would be, of itself, valueless. On the other hand, 
if this difference between leviathan and every known 



516 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

living creature, and which is so carefully depicted here 
in these four verses of scripture, is designed to aid in 
our instruction, first of all, as to what leviathan is not, 
and cannot possibly be, and so to lead us on to the study 
and search of the question of what he or it really is, or 
what he or it is designed to represent, then this other- 
wise valueless information becomes inestimably valuable 
to us in our search of the long-hidden and occult mean- 
ing of the whole mystery of this strangest of creatures, 
called leviathan. And so, it is designed ; and so we are 
led on to the end of a safe and sound conclusion of the 
whole matter. 

Verse 30: 

"Sharp stones are under him : he spread- 
eth sharp pointed things upon the mire." 

YVe are told in the commentary of the learned Dr. 
Cowles, that in v. 30, we are to find — not "sharp stones," 
but "sharp points of the hard scales under his belly, 
which leave their traces on his path as the oriental 
threshing sledge would if drawn through mire." But. 
unfortunately, we are not told of what possible signifi- 
cance it could be to anyone, that the "sharp points of 
the hard scales" under the belly of a crocodile leave 
marks in the mud, when he passes' over it; nor what 
light this circumstance, however true as a simple fact, 
sheds on the problem of the 41st chapter of the Book of 
Job. It therefore devolves upon us, having undertaken 
to exploit this famous chapter in a way better comport- 
ing with the dignity and importance of a revelation from 
the Lord, than by accepting it as a description of the 
anatomy, and of the antics, up and down, of a crocodile, 
to offer some explanation of this verse thereof, which 
shall give it a significance worthy its place in the in- 
spired word of God. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 517 

From the beginning of the 38th chapter, where the 
Lord begins to answer Job out of the whirlwind, until 
now, the text has been prophetic and descriptive, under 
aptly chosen figures, of the great revolutionary aspects 
and movements of and in the religious, political, and 
scientific world of Today. The shadow prophetic has 
paused over the Press, the Locomotive Engine, the Nav- 
igation of the sea by Steamships, the Electric Telegraph 
over land, and now and here, in this verse : "Sharp 
stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed 
things upon the mire," it pauses over Submarine Teleg- 
raphy. The "sharp pointed things" which leviathan 
spreadeth upon the mire, are the wires which compose 
the Sub-Sea Cables stretched upon the mire of the 
ocean's bed. 

Then, as to what is signified by : "Sharp stones are 
under him," first it is to be noted that this circumstance 
is related in immediate connection with his spreading 
of sharp pointed things on the mire, as though the two 
circumstances had occurred in immediate connection 
with each other, or were so to occur, as indeed they 
were, and have done. When the preliminary survey of 
the bottom of the sea was made, with the view of lay- 
ing down the first trans-Atlantic cable, the discovery 
was made that for some three hundred miles out from 
the coast on the east side, the bottom was covered with 
raised up ridges of sharp, jagged rocks. This discov- 
ery was one of the utmost importance in its bearing 
upon the whole great enterprise; for had it not been 
made in advance of the laying down of the first cable, 
that first experiment would, in all probability, have 
proved so complete a failure as to have led to the total 
abandonment of the work. The "sharp stones" that 
were under him, leviathan, when he began to spread 
"Sharp pointed things" down on the bottom of the sea, 
would have destroyed the insulation of the cable, had it 



518 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

been stretched straight across the summits of these 
ledges of stone. But the discovery of their existence 
there, having been made in advance, what would have 
otherwise been an insuperable difficulty was overcome 
by carefully paying out the cable up and down the slop 
ing sides of the ridges and across their summits, so as 
to prevent the sawing of its insulation by the "sharp 
stones" of which they were made up. Finally, that the 
hand of God was in the world-uniting scheme, was rec- 
ognized in the first complete message sent through the 
first completed cable : "What hath God wrought !" 
And that the inspiration of God in the penning of this 
verse of Sacred Scripture is more likely to have been 
directed to something like this, than to the calling of at- 
tention to the "sharp points of the hard, scales under his 
belly, which leave their traces on his path," when a 
crocodile crawls over the mire, is left to the unbiased 
judgment of the reader. 

Verse 31 : 

"He maketh .the deep to boil like a pot : he 
maketh the sea like a pot of ointment." 

Verse 32 : 

"He maketh a path to shine after him ; one 
would think the deep to be hoary." 

These two verses together describe the phenomena 
attendant upon the passage over and upon the sea, of 
the huge leviathan of iron and steam ; the heaving up 
and tumbling down of the waters, are aptly likened to 
the boiling of a pot; and the whitening of the sea with 
foam, to the froth on a pot of whipped-up ointment. 
That "He maketh a path to shine after him," signifies 
the trail of electric or phosphorescent light which the 
mighty craft leaves behind it in the water at night — a 
phenomenon which thousands have witnessed when 
crossing the sea in a steamship, but which no one ever 



THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 519 

saw in connection with the passage through the water, 
of either the whale or the crocodile, or any other living 
creature. And here again, leviathan is distinguished 
and differentiated from them all, as in so many other 
particulars of his construction and action. 

Verse 33 : 

"Upon earth there is not his like, who is 
made without fear." 

This is an analogous figure to that of the fearless- 
ness of the iron "horse," of which it is said in a former 
chapter, that "he mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted." 
And that, in its turn is like unto the laughing of leviathan 
at "the shaking of a spear," both the mocking- of the one, 
and the laughing of the other, being poetic imputations 
of powers to inanimate objects which are not possessed 
by themselves, such as are freely made in other scrip- 
ture. Here, the imputation of fearlessness is made to 
leviathan as though he, or it, were a living creature ; 
.and this, consistently with the use of the animal figure 
throughout the description of the battleship. But in im- 
mediate connection with this imputation of fearlessness 
to leviathan, as though he were a living animal, comes 
the statement that "upon earth there is not his like" — 
that is, in this respect of being utterly devoid of fear. 
This, once more distinguishes the subject from every 
kind and form of animal life ; for there is no creature liv- 
ing, nor was there ever one, "made without fear." All, 
great and small, have their enemies ; and all are more 
or less fearful of them. The instinct of self-preservation, 
or the fear and dread of extinction, is implanted in, and 
is an inherent property of the life of every creature that 
God has made. Without it, the human race, together 
with every form of animal life, would speedily become 
extinct upon the earth. 



520 . THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

In Genesis, 9, it is written that God said to Noah 
and his posterity — all future generations of men — "And 
the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every 
beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon 
all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes 
of the sea." And we know that it has been so, and is 
so to this day, that the fear and dread of man are upon 
every beast of the earth ; yet here is something described 
as a beast who is made without fear — that is, with no 
fear of either man or beast. And were this a real beast, 
that is here described as such, there would be a plain 
contradiction in the terms and statements of the two 
scriptures. But there is no contradiction, either in 
terms, or in statement of facts ; for this fearless beast, 
leviathan, is a beast only in figure, and not so in fact. 
This itself is indicated in the terms of the text itself: 
"Upon earth there is not his like" — he is unlike all the 
beasts of the earth, being made without fear. And now 
that we know and understand what kind of beast levia- 
than is — that he is that most monstrous and hideous of 
all beasts on land or sea, the Battleship of today, the 
seemingly anomalous statement that he is made without 
fear, is so only from a mistaken conception of what is 
meant by leviathan, to begin with. 

Verse 34: 

"He beholdeth all high things: he is a king 
over all the children of pride." 

In this last verse of the chapter, we have the chief 
and crowning distinction of leviathan over and above all 
beasts of the earth, and also a summary of his real and 
true character. It cannot be truthfully said of any beast 
of the earth, that "he beholdeth all high things," in 
any sense of the word, "beholdeth," either literal or fig- 
urative ; nor of any one of them all, that "he is a king 
over all the children of pride," in any way or manner 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 521 

whatever, or even over so much as one of them, since the 
most, if not quite all "the children of pride," are men. 

Leviathan is here a personification of the Pride of 
the World, which "beholdeth all high things," in the 
sense of its lofty aspirations and ambitions. In spiritual 
things it aspires to the dominion of heaven, saying in its 
heart what it is made to say in set phrase, in Isaiah, 
14:13: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my 
throne above the stars of God : I will sit also upon the 
mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north." 
And in verse 14, "I will ascend above the heights of the 
clouds ; I will be like the Most High." 

In its ambition for temporal dominion, it says 
among other proud and high things, I will build me 
battleships that shall exceed in size and power those of 
all the nations of the world — that I may take the title of 
"Arbiter of war, and Lord of thee" — the ocean. This is 
he who "beholdeth all high things," and is "a king over 
all the children of pride," who are all his own. 

For farther confirmation of the truth that leviathan 
is a figure of the world-powers, in one, see Psalm 74:14, 
which reads : 

"Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in 
pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people 
inhabiting the wilderness." 

Here, the people inhabiting the wilderness, are the 
chosen people of the Lord — the Jews ; and their inhabit- 
ing the wilderness, is their forty years' sojourn therein, 
after coming out of the cultivated land of Egypt. Then, 
the "heads of leviathan," which God broke for them, are 
the nations whose land and substance he gave to his 
people at their coming into Canaan, after destroying and 
driving out these nations, with their heads, from before 
them. In this way it was, that God gave leviathan to be 
meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. 



522 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Long before this, Joshua and Caleb used much the 
same figure in speaking to the people, who feared to 
enter the land which God had given them, because there 
were "giants, the sons of Anak" there, and they said 
to them : "Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither 
fear ye the people of the land ; for they are bread for 
us ; . . . " After this, comes Balaam and says the 
same thing of Israel : 

"God brought him forth out of Egypt; he 
hath as it were the strength of an unicorn : he 
shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall 
break their bones, and pierce them through 
with his arrows." 

These things assist in showing what is meant by 
the breaking of the heads of leviathan, and giving him to 
be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness ; and this 
in its turn reacts upon, and illuminates the long time 
dark problem of what is meant by the leviathan, as 
described and dwelt upon here in the forty-first chapter 
of the Book of Job. And if now we would know some- 
what of the final destiny of this great king over "all 
the children of pride," we have only to turn to the 
twenty-seventh chapter of Isaiah and read in the first 
verse thereof, what he says of it, after having spoken 
in the last verse of the next previous chapter, of the com- 
ing of the Lord — out of his place to punish the inhab- 
itants of the earth for their iniquity : 

"In that day the Lord with his sore and 
great and strong sword shall punish leviathan 
the piercing serpent, even leviathan that 
crooked serpent ; and he shall slay the dragon 
that is in the sea." 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

The Epilogue. (Job xlii.) 

This last chapter of the book consists, first of all, in 
an acknowledgment by Job of the omnipotence and 
omniscience of God, as set forth in verse 2. 

Verse 2 : 

"I know that thou canst do every thing, 
and that no thought can be withholden from 
thee." 

For the Messianic meaning and application of this, 
see the repeated declaration of the Christ, that "with- God 
all things are possible," of which, this saying by the 
mouth of his prophet : I know that thou canst do every 
thing — is an utterance by his speaking figure, Job. Then 
for — and that no thought can be withholden from thee — 
see Mark, 4:22: 

"For there is nothing hid, which shall not 
be manifested ; neither was anything kept se- 
cret, but that it should come abroad." 
Verse 3 : 

"Who is he that hideth counsel without 
knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I 
understood not ; things too wonderful for me, 
which I knew not." 



524 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

This can be better understood by reference to the 
regenerating man, of whom Job is a figure, as well as 
of the personal Christ. When first the Spirit of Truth, 
who is the Christ, begins to work in him and to move 
him to speech, he utters that he understands not ; things 
too wonderful for him, which he knows not. Neverthe- 
less, the application is to the Christ himself. In that 
part of the discourse of Job, where the perfect and up- 
right man in the sight of the Lord is made to essay the 
role of a sinner, and to charge himself with sin, it was 
explained that this is a figure of the assumption of our 
sins, and suffering for them as though he had himself 
committed them, by the Sinless One, the Christ. So 
here, he is made to accuse himself of ignorance in saying 
he had uttered that he had not understood ; this, in an- 
other figure, represents Christ's assumption of our ig- 
norance, as well as our sin. 

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, 
who knew no sin ; that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in him," 

says Paul, in Corinthians, 5:21. So here, under the fig- 
ure of wise Job foolishly uttering* that he understood not, 
he hath made him to be foolishness for us, who was the 
Wisdom of God; that we might be made the wisdom of 
God in him: "Because the foolishness of God is wiser 
than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than 
men." 

Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? 
is the same question asked Job by the Lord, in chapter 
38 :2. It was said in that connection that it is the Christ ; 
and that the reference is to his speaking to the multitude 
in parables which they could not understand, and which 
he purposely designed that they should not understand ; 
and so darkened counsel by words which, to them, were 
"without knowledge." He is the same Christ here, as 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 525 

there ; and the reference is to the same things. To the 
Greeks, the preaching of Christ was "foolishness," as 
Paul says; to them, it was the uttering of that they un- 
derstood not; of things too wonderful for them, which 
they knew not. It is the same with all the carnally 
minded, always and everywhere. And in a dramatic 
representation of the inability of the carnal mind to un- 
derstand the truths of the Gospel of Christ, such as this 
is here, there was no way for it but to put it in the mouth 
of this speaking figure of the Christ to charge himself 
with having hidden counsel without knowledge, and 
with having uttered that he understood not. 

Just so, it was impossible to represent the assump- 
tion of the sins of the world by the Savior of the world, 
so well in any other way as by making his figure and 
representative, Job, to assume the role of the sinner, and 
to charge himself with sinfulness of heart, even as here 
he does with foolishness of speech. This understood, 
all the difficulty of this verse in making the wisest and 
greatest of all the men of the east to utter foolishness, 
is overcome. 

Verse 4: 

"Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak; I 
will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me." 

In this way, by the prayer imputed to Job, is repre- 
sented the strong and ceaseless aspiration Godward, of 
the Christ. Always he besought God to hear him; and 
he did speak and say : I know that thou hearest me al- 
ways. The almost peremptory spirit, or language, of I 
will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me, bespeaks 
the perfect assurance and strong confidence of him who 
knew who he was, and that the God who had sent him 
into the world would declare unto him all that was nec- 
essary for him to know, in order to the accomplishment 



526 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

of his mission therein. What God should declare unto 
him, in answer to his petition, is foretold in Psalm 2 :7 : 

"I will declare the decree: the Lord hath 
said unto me, Thou art my Son ; this day have 
I begotten thee." 

For here, as everywhere, this scripture testifies of 
Him, and not of Job — who never was, save only as an 
ideal and representative character, for the sake and pur- 
pose of such testimony in advance of his coming into 
the world and afterward, for confirmation of the truth 
of his own testimony, that he is the Son of God, and 
sent of the Father. 

Verse 5 : 

"I have heard of thee by the hearing of the 
ear : but now mine eye seeth thee." 

In this imputed spiritual experience of Job, is rep- 
resented the order of the growth and development of 
Messianism in the world at large ; and the actual spir- 
itual experience of every regenerated one therein. First 
of all, the gospel must be preached to "the hearing of 
the ear ;" for "how shall they believe in him of whom they 
have not heard? and how shall they hear without a 
preacher?" — as asked by Paul, in his Epistle to the Ro- 
mans. Then, after the faith that "cometh by hearing," 
as the same farther says, comes the sight of the eye, or 
the understanding of truth at first believed by the hear- 
ing of the ear. Then the enlightened soul sees Him of 
whom at first it has only heard; and this is the meaning, 
the Messianic meaning, of this triumphant exclamation 
of this speaking figure of the Christ, that is called Job — 
but now mine eye seeth thee. 

Verse 6: 

"Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in 
dust and ashes." 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 527 

This has always been misunderstood to mean the 
penitence of Job for what he had wrongly uttered of 
God when he was in dire distress from what had befallen 
him of evil. Yet in the next verse to this we have the 
testimony of the Lord himself, that his servant Job had 
spoken of him the thing that is right. This misunder- 
standing, like all of the many others as to Job, has come 
of the erroneous notion that he was a real person, and 
that he actually spoke these words of the text, like all 
of the great number of other words put in his mouth by 
the inspired author of the drama. But the truth is that 
while this imputed repentance of Job cannot be applied 
to the Christ personally, who himself was sinless, and 
needed no repentance, it still is, in this chosen way, tes- 
timony of him and his teaching of sinners that an indis- 
pensable condition to becoming his disciples, is self-ab- 
horrence — hatred of their lives, their old lives of sin 
and iniquity. They must first abhor themselves, and 
"repent in dust and ashes," as it were, here symbols of 
that lowliest humiliation and self-abasement which is 
necessary for a coming to Christ and a healing of spir- 
itual blindness so" that at last the healed may say with 
Job — but now mine eye seeth thee. But before Job 
could be made to teach -in his own person the need and 
experience of repentance, as in this verse, sin must be 
imputed to him which he never committed — wherein he 
is made a type of Christ — and this, we have seen to have 
been done before this, where he is made a sinner by his 
own confession. 

And now, as a fitting sequel to his assumption of 
sin, he is made to assume the role of the penitent sinner 
— to abhor himself, and to repent in dust and ashes ; and 
this, to teach in a personal type and figure, Christ's doc- 
trine of the abhorrence of self as one of the conditions 
of salvation by him. This is the teaching method of this 
old drama of the Messiah, throughout ; and here, as 



528 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

everywhere, it is consistent with itself, and continues 
so to the end ; for this assumption of penitence on the 
part of Job, is now soon followed by the account of his 
salvation by the Lord, which itself is intended to rep- 
resent the salvation of the real sinner, upon re'pentance, 
by the pardoning Christ. Thus the long time mystery 
of the double role of Job in the drama, that of saint and 
sinner, or of, in one person, savior and saved, is solved. 
It is a wrought correspondence to the divine plan of 
making the sinless. Savior of the world "to be sin for us, 
who knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteous- 
ness of God in him." 

Verse 7: 

"And it was so, that after the Lord had 
spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to 
Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled 
against thee, and against thy two friends : for 
ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, 
as my servant Job hath." 

It has been shown in the forepart of this treatise 
that Eliphaz the Temanite and his two friends represent 
three ruling classes of the Jews, or the chief priests, 
the scribes, and the Pharisees, of the day of Jesus the 
Christ. And that the arguments of these three men 
against Job, are representative of those of these Jews 
against Jesus. That they had "a zeal to God, but not 
according to knowledge," is certified of them by Paul in 
his Epistle to the Romans. And because their zeal for 
God was without wisdom, they never spoke of him the 
thing that was right, which Jesus always did. And this 
is what is testified of here in this saying of the Lord to 
Eliphaz, that he and his two friends had not spoken of 
him the thing that was right, as his servant to Job had. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 529 

Verse 8: 

"Therefore take unto you now seven bul- 
locks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, 
and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; 
and my servant Job shall pray for you : for him 
will I accept : lest I deal with you after your 
folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing 
which is right, like my servant Job." 

Instantly this command of the Lord to these three 
men to take unto them seven bullocks and seven rams, 
and to go to his servant Job, and offer up for themselves 
a burnt offering, suggests the story of Balaam's com- 
mand to Balak, king of Moab, to build him seven altars, 
and to prepare him seven oxen and seven rams to offer 
up a burnt offering to the Lord. The occasion was this : 
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt into 
Canaan, the Moabit.es were afraid of them, "because 
they were many." Then Balak, their king, sent and 
called for the priest and prophet of the Lord, Balaam, 
to come and curse Israel for him. And when, after be- 
ing sent for twice, he came and commanded the burnt 
offering of seven oxen and seven rams, to see what the 
Lord would say concerning Israel — whether he should 
be cursed and destroyed, or blessed and saved ; and the 
issue of it all was the saving and blessing of Israel by 
the Lord. 

This story, as told in the Book of Numbers and at 
length, is in substance and effect the same story that is 
more briefly told here in the Book of Job. For we are 
now come in this and the next verse, to the final foreshad- 
owing of the conversion of the Jews to the Christ of 
whom the whole story of Job is testimony from begin- 
ning to end; and here at its close, of his ultimate recov- 
ery of his long lost and scattered and wandering sheep, 
and of their ingathering into his fold. The seven bul- 



530 THE NEW BOOK 01* JOB 

locks and seven rams which these three representative 
men are commanded by the Lord to take and make a 
burnt offering of in their own behalf, are symbolical of 
their hardness of heart and stiffness of neck, and which 
they must yield up and make a sacrifice of unto the Lord. 
And they must go to his servant Job — who is Jesus the 
Christ — and through him make their offering of sacrifice 
to the Lord ; and his servant Job should pray for them, 
for him and. him only, would he accept. These same 
men who in their blindness of eyes and hardness of 
heart have fought Job from the first, have maligned afcd 
persecuted him, and crucified him, as it were, on the 
cross of their scorn and contempt of him and his teach- 
ing, must now at last go to him, make sacrifices unto 
him, and acknowledge him as their Mediator and Inter- 
cessor with the Lord, in order to be saved from his 
kindled, wrath against them, because they had not 
spoken of him, with all their pretensions to piety, the 
thing which was right, as his servant Job had done. 

That they whom these three men represent — who 
are the Jews — will yet come to him whom Job represents 
— who is the Christ — and accept him as their Savior, is 
preindicated in the next verse : 

Verse 9 : 

"So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the 
Shuhite and Zophar the Naamath.it e went, and 
did according as the Lord commanded them : 
the Lord also accepted Job." 

So the friends of Job are saved from the wrath of 
God. through their acceptance of him as their Intercessor 
with the Lord, and the acceptance by the \Lord of the 
prayer of Job on their behalf : 

"And so all Israel shall be saved : as it is 
written, There shall come out of Sion the De- 
liverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from 
Jacob." — Romans, 11:26. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 531 

And now who does not see that this is written here 
of that same Deliverer, the Christ, under the figure of 
Job making intercession with God for his friends, who 
are his enemies, and who in spirit have crucified him, 
and so delivering them from the impending wrath of 
God? And since these some-time haters and persecutors 
of Job have by 'their doctrine and speech betrayed their 
origin — that they are Jews — and at last are saved 
through the intercession of him whom they hated and 
persecuted, who can doubt that this is the thus foretold 
story of the salvation of the Jews by the acceptance of 
Christ as their Savior? 

Verse 10: 

"And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, 
when he prayed for his friends : also the Lord 
gave Job twice as much as he had before." 

Here the turning of the captivity of Job is signifi- 
cant of the redemption and deliverance of the Church of 
Christ, out of and from all its affliction and deep tribu- 
lations which, historically, it suffered from the persecu- 
tion of the church of Anti-Christ during the "dark ages" 
of Christian history. Then, the giving of the Lord to 
Job, "twice as much as he had before," signifies the 
redoubled prosperity of the church after its restoration, 
beginning at the Reformation. Twice as much, is not 
to be thought of as literally and exactly no more nor less 
than double what it was before ; this is a common for- 
mula in scripture for an overflowing abundance. See 
Isaiah, 61 :7, where under the heading of The office of 
Christ, and after speaking of the afflictions of his people, 
he says : 

"For your shame ye shall have double ; and 
for confusion they shall rejoice in their por- 
tion: therefore in their land they shall possess 
the double . . ." 



532 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Verse 11 : 

"Then came there unto him all his breth- 
ren, and all his sisters, and all they that had 
been of his acquaintance before, and did eat 
bread with him in his house : and they be- 
moaned him, and comforted him over all the 
evil that the Lord had brought upon him : every 
man also gave him a piece of money, and every- 
one an earring of gold." 

The significance of this verse is of something far 
greater than the reunion of the broken up family of a 
patriarch of the land of Uz in the long ago, together with 
the flocking to him of all his old friends and acquaint- 
ances to congratulate him on the recovery of his health 
after a dangerous illness, and of his lost wealth, and as 
much more with it, and every man of them bringing with 
him a bit of coin, and a gold ring to put in his ear. All 
of this, in the picture language of the prophet of the 
Messiah, is descriptive of the reassemblage and reunion 
of the scattered and dispersed Church after the fulfill- 
ment of the prophecy : "I will smite the Shepherd, and 
the sheep shall be scattered." This was fulfilled in the 
time of the great persecution; but it had also been fore- 
told that he who scattered them should gather them 
again; and this Averse is a scenic description of the in- 
gathering of the scattered sheep of Christ, with him pre- 
siding at the head of the festal scene — this being this 
prophet's way of portraying what other prophets of the 
same things state directly in plain terms. This is simply 
a scene set on the stage of the prophetic drama of Today ; 
and in the light of the Messianic idea of it all, and in the 
view we have had of the orderly unfolding of its plot, 
on and up to this triumphal closing scene of it all, there 
is no escaping a right conclusion as to what it is designed 
to represent. 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 533 

The figure of the returned friends of the restored 
patriarch eating bread with him in his rebuilded house, 
is simply that of the renewal of Christian services in the 
once destroyed, and now rebuilded church of Christ. 
That of every man giving him a piece of money, is the 
free contribution of each one according to his means to 
the reorganization of the disrupted church; for the 
church has need of material means to its spiritual ends. 
The earring of gold which everyone gave him in addi- 
tion to his piece of money, is symbolical of the pledge of 
individual and personal loyalty and devotion to the head 
of the House, who is the Christ. Such things as earrings 
are of service only as attached to the person; hence the 
figure of the gift of an earring to Job by every man, as 
a token of his loyalty to him. This circumstance, of it- 
self, and as occurring at a family and friendly reunion 
in the history of a patriarch of the olden time, of no suf- 
ficient importance to us of today, to make it worthy of 
record, when applied to him and his friends, of whom 
all this is testimony, becomes truly and deeply signifi- 
cant, as showing that it is such testimony in things least, 
as well as in things greatest. 

Verse 12 : 

"So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job 
more than his beginning, for he had fourteen 
thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a 
thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she 
asses." 

It has been shown at the first naming and enumera- 
tion of the flocks and herds of Job, in the third verse 
of the first chapter of the book, that both the names and 
the numbers of these flocks and herds are symbolical, 
and not literal names nor numbers, as used in this con- 
nection, and also what they are symbolical and repre- 
sentative of — that his "sheep" are the spirit-flock of 



534 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

Christ in its entirety ; that his "camels" are the travelling 
and foreign missionaries for the carrying of the gospel to 
distant lands ; that his "oxen," are the plowers of the 
soil, or letter, of the Word in the home field, the local 
pastors of the church, such as are called by Paul, "yoke- 
fellows in Christ ;" and that the "she asses," are the 
gross burden-bearers of the gospel propaganda. Here 
then, in this second naming and enumeration of the same 
"substance" of Job, the significance of it all is necessarily 
the same as in the first instance, with the exception that 
here and now he has exactly the double of each former 
flock and herd, and so, of the sum total of all. 

The absurdity of supposing that this is an account 
of a practically impossible happening in the experience 
of a sheep and cattle king of the land of Uz, in the long 
ago, has been sufficiently dwelt upon heretofore ; and 
what is left is only to explain what is signified by the 
exact doubling of the number of each and every kind of 
domestic animal formerly possessed by the great Shep- 
herd of Uz. It has no reference to any exact literal num- 
ber or quantity of anything whatever — not even of the 
things represented by the various kinds of domestic 
animals named, which are the various kinds, ranks and 
grades of service performed by the "sheep" of the great 
Shepherd of souls, the Christ. It signifies here, restora- 
tion of all that has been lost, along with fullness of 
recompense, in addition thereto, for what has been suf- 
fered.- Prophetically, it is here the promise of God, the 
Father, to Christ, the Son, that in tne latter or last days 
of his dispensation, he shall be much more abundantly 
blessed than in the beginning thereof. 

Other examples in scripture of the use of the terms, 
"twice," and "double," where it is clear that no literal 
meaning attaches to them, should suggest to us that 
there is no such a meaning necessarily in them here, as 
in Jude : "sinners that are twice dead ;" and in Psalms : 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 535 

"a double heart ;" and in Jeremiah, and Isaiah : 
"recompense their sin double," and "received double for 
all her sins." So here, that the Lord gave Job "twice as 
much as he had before," and recompensed him with the 
double of his former and lost "substance," is not to be 
taken and understood in any literal sense of the terms 
and figures, but in the large and liberal sense of their 
symbolical use and meaning. 

Verse 13 : 

"He had also seven sons and three daugh- 
ters." • 

In commenting on the family record of the great 
patriarch — head of a house or church — in the first chap- 
ter of the book, or prologue of the drama, it was ob- 
served that it should seem a very singular and excep- 
tional thing that so great and wealthy a prince as Job, 
living in a polygamous age and land, when and where 
the size of his family was esteemed a measure of the 
respect in which a man was held, should have only one 
wife and. ten children. This seeming discrepancy was 
reconciled in the interpretation of the wife-figure, as that 
of the Church, or the once pure and spotless Bride of 
Christ, now in apostasy, and turned Temptress of the 
Faith. Therefore, one wife was all that was necessary 
or allowable for the purpose of the strictly and purely 
representative story of Job. 

Then the circumstance that so great a patriarch, or 
father, as Job, should have only ten children — a very 
singular one, under all the other circumstances of the 
story, when looked upon as an authentic record of lit- 
eral facts, was explained by saying that the seven stal- 
wart sons of Job represent the church of Christ in its 
organic and militant capacity; and his three fair daugh- 
ters, the church spiritual, pure and holy. Therefore, 
these seven sons and these three daughters were all that 



536 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

were necessary or allowable, for the use and purpose of 
this part of the manufactured record of the patriarch. 
Hence came the surprising- smallness of their number. 

And now and here in this small verse we are con- 
fronted with the much more surprising statement that 
again he has seven sons and three daughters — his first 
seven sons having all been killed by the falling upon 
them of the house in which they were eating and drink- 
ing together when it fell upon them, while no mention 
is made of the fate of their three sisters. It is doubtful 
if the family records of all mankind could furnish a 
parallel to this one, of Job — that a man in his early man- 
hood had a family of children consisting of seven sons 
and three daughters, and after having lost them all, had 
in his comparatively old age another family consisting 
of exactly the same total number of children, and of pre- 
cisely the same proportion of the sexes, or ten each 
time, with seven males and three females in each fam- 
ily. And what makes the smallness of the number of 
the offspring of the great patriarch more surprising in 
this family record No. 2, than in the record No. 1, is the 
statement that now his circumstances are vastly improved 
over what they were at first ; all of his former and lost 
wealth has been restored to him, and as much more with 
it ; and his first "very great household" is now neces- 
sarily very much greater than at first. For his lost 7,000 
sheep, he now has 14,000, and so on to the end of the list. 
In short, God gives him now "twice as much as he had 
before," of everything save only offspring; of these, he 
gives him exactly the same number, and the same pro- 
portion to each other as before of sons and daughters. 

This calls for explanation ; and it is this : The sons 
and daughters of Job, with their numbers and propor- 
tions of the sexes, here stand for and represent iden- 
tically the same things as in the first enumeration and 
proportion thereof; and this, without reference to either 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 537 

the increase or the diminution of the things represented. 
Therefore, their number and proportion are made the 
same here and now, as there and then. Interpreted ac- 
cording to the Messianic idea of it all, this verse reads : 
He had again a body and a life — the seven sons being 
the body-organic of the rebuilded church ; and the three 
daughfers, the life-spiritual thereof. 

Verse 14: 

"And he called the name of the first, Je- 
mima ; and the name of the second, Kezia ; 
and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch." 

Omitting all comment on the meaning of these 
names in the original, such as "dove," for the first, 
"cassia," for the second, and "paint horn," for the third, 
with all the various other renderings of their meaning 
by various other scholars, we give their names as they 
are called in plain English, today; and they are, Faith, 
Hope, Charity — these being the chief constituents of 
Christian character, and the leading principles of true 
Christian life ; and the development and history of these, 
extending through the ages of time, being the animus 
of the story of Job, including his family record. 

Verse 15 : 

"And in all the land were no women found 
so fair as the daughters of Job : and their 
father gave them inheritance among their 
brethren." 

In the Song of Solomon, the church-spiritual is per- 
: onified as a woman, and is twice apostrophized as "the 
fairest among women ;" and twice as "the daughters of 
Jerusalem," and "the daughters of Zion." Much space 
is also given up to eulogies of her, and their all exceed- 
ing fairness, beauty, and loveliness. Here in Job the 
same figure is employed in describing the Graces of 



538 THE NEW BOOK OP JOB 

Christ, as the fairest women in all the land, but with 
such naturalness and simplicity of phrasing as to have 
deceived many, and caused them to accept the figure for 
a record of simple, natural, and historic fact — which it 
no more is, than are the more highly ornate images of 
the same things in the Song of Solomon. And if it were 
so, the simple fact that the three daughters of Job were 
the fairest women in all the land of Uz, were no concern 
of ours. But interpreted in harmony with the govern- 
ing idea of the story entire, it becomes the fairest for- 
mula of Messianic prophecy in all the Book of Job ; the 
brightest, beautifulest and best to be found in all the 
many master-strokes of poetic genius with' which its 
pages abound ; for in all the land of Souls what is there 
so fair as Faith, so bright as Hope, or so beautiful as 
Charity? Well might the Bard of bards not more lofty 
in sublimity than beautiful in simplicity, softly and 
sweetly, yet exultingly sing in his last closing note of 
tirumph : And in all the land were no women found so 
fair as the daughters of Job. 

In the last clause of this verse — and their father 
gave them inheritance among their brethren — there ap- 
pears on the face of it, a dropping down from the 
heights of poesy to the prosaic level of a business prop- 
osition ; yet it is as purely poetical and symbolical in 
its structure, and as surely Messianic in its meaning 
and application, as is the first clause — descriptive of the 
all-excelling beauty of the daughters of Job. All that 
one of the ablest of modern commentators— Dr. Clarke 
— has to say of it is : "This seems to refer to the history 
of the daughters of Zelophehad, given in Numbers 27: 
1-3, who appear to have been the first who were allowed 
an inheritance among their brethren." But a more care- 
ful reading of the text shows us that the five daughters 
of Zelophehad were disinherited by their father; and 
that they had no brethren, their father died leaving no 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 539 

sons to inherit his wealth, which reverted to his next 
nearest of kindred on the male side of the house. The 
daughters thereupon appealed to Moses to rectify what 
seemed to them an injustice, and to see to it that they 
were given a share in their deceased father's property. 
Moses then went to the Lord for instruction what to do 
for them, if anything; and the Lord instructed him to 
take away a portion of it from those who had gotten it 
all, and to give it to the disinherited daughters of Ze- 
lophehad ; and that this should be the law to govern all 
such cases thereafter. So much for the daughters of 
Job, given an inheritance among their brethren, by their 
father, being a reference to the disinheriting of the 
daughters of Zelophehad by their father — the two ac- 
counts being of exactly opposite things ; the one, a small 
excerpt from the history of the wrongs of womankind 
under Jewish laws and customs, and the other, a 
prophecy in type and figure, of that equalization of the 
rights and privileges of the sister woman with those of 
the brother man, which was to be one of the outcomes of 
that great, new, and enlightened civilization to come, 
and to spread itself over the entire habitable globe in 
the name of Christianity. For it is of nothing less than 
this, that the giving of an inheritance among their 
brethren, to the daughters of Job by their father, is a 
figure in Messianic prophecy. 

And now, today, the daughters of Job are beginning 
to come into their long delayed inheritance among their 
brethren, in the way of equal compensation for equal 
service of whatever kind, in the way of a growing recog- 
nition of the equal right of suffrage for women as well 
as for men, and of their average intellectual equality 
with their long-time lords and masters, men, to say 
nothing of the growing belief in their moral superiority 
thereto. And if it appears to them that they are com- 
ing into it slowly and with unnecessary delay, let them 



540 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

remember that this has always been the way of great 
moral revolutions at their inception, and that they 
gather speed and momentum as they come. Also let 
them be assured that it shall be theirs in its fullness at 
last, by this late discovery that it is so written in the 
long obscured and misunderstood terms of their father's 
will — and their father gave them inheritance among 
their brethren — concerning which, all our prophets have 
prophesied unto us "a false vision and divination, and a 
thing of nought." 

Verse 16: 

"After this lived Job an hundred and forty 
years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, 
even four generations." 

Although the great mass of commentary on the 
questions of the age of Job, how old he was at his first 
introduction upon the stage of the drama which bears 
his name, how long* he lived after his restoration, and 
what his age was when he died, contains much interest- 
ing and valuable information on side issues, none of it 
all sheds any light upon the main questions at issue. 
This is easily accounted for on the score of the extreme 
difficulty of finding out when and where, and how long 
a man lived who never lived anywhere, or at all. It is 
all wild speculation upon a mere presumption without 
any basis in any fact whatever. Some of them take 
liberties with the text itself; rugged old Coverdale 
makes it read: After this. lived Job forty years — cutting 
out an hundred years from his life. Becke's Bible, of 
1549, does the same. The Septuagint has it, And all the 
years that Job lived were two hundred and forty. There 
is something pathetic in the view of so much and so 
great ability and learning all misdirected and misapplied 
in so many frantic and futile efforts to find out when and 
where a constructed type and figure of Messianic proph- 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 541 

ecy was born, how long it lived after its recovery from 
a long and dangerous illness, and what its exact age 
was when it died. Setting aside the ludicrous element 
of these researches, it all becomes a pitiful example of 
wasted learning and fruitless endeavor to endow with 
life, and its termination, a phantom of their own imag- 
ination. 

The number of the years to which Job attains after 
his recovery of his lost health and wealth, together with 
the resurrection of his dead sons, and the return of his 
wandering daughters, with the flocking to him again of 
all his former friends, with gifts of money and jewels 
of gold — all of which is typical and prophetical of the 
restoration of the downfallen and destroyed Church, 
with a vast increase of its temporal and spiritual pros- 
perity — is a purely symbolical number, like each and 
every other number of the purely symbolical and repre- 
sentative story of Job from first to last. These are not 
calendar, but Messianic years ; and any and every at- 
tempt to reduce their number to secular terms must nec- 
essarily fail of success ; they are not so reducible ; 
neither are they designed to be so understood. Their 
introduction here, together with their number, is simply 
a necessary part of the plot of the drama ; necessary 
alike to its completeness as a story, and to the complete- 
ness of its representative purpose. 

That purpose, as a whole, is to represent the whole 
living drama of Christianity, to be set upon the stage 
of the world in a future age of its history. First of all, 
the advent of Christ, its author, in the person of a per- 
fect and an upright man, called Job ; the increase and 
growth of the kingdom of heaven on earth, by the birth 
unto Job, of sons and daughters ; the prosperity of the 
primitive church, by the wealth of Job ; the succeeding 
persecutions and afflictions of the church, by the malice 
of Satan towards Job, and his losses and tribulations 



542 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

resultant therefrom; the rejection of the gospel by the 
Jews, by the scornful and contemptuous treatment of 
Job on the part of his three false "friends ;" the great 
controversy which the coming of Christ was to raise in 
the world, by the great debate between Job and his al- 
leged friends ; the giving of the gospel to the Gentiles, 
by the introduction of Elihu upon the stage of the 
drama ; the great revolution to be wrought in the ideas 
and practical affairs of mankind in answer to the teach- 
ing and doctrine of the Christ, by the speaking of the 
Lord from a whirlwind, in answer to Job ; the final ac- 
ceptance of the Christ as their Intercessor and Savior, 
by the Jews, by the going of the three persecutors of 
Job to him with their burnt offerings, and his interces- 
sion with the Lord on their behalf, with the Lord's 
acceptance of his prayer for their conversion ; the final 
turning of the captivity of the church, and its redoubled 
prosperity, by the turning of the captivity of Job, and 
the giving to him by the Lord, of "twice as much as he 
had before." 

The terms, "twice as much," as used here, have no 
merely numerical signification, but a broad and general 
application to the enlarged and improved status of the 
Church after a long period of adversity — symbolized in 
the taking away of the wealth of Job by the Sabeans 
and the Chaldeans. The use of the term, "double," 
which is frequent in the scriptures, is identically the 
same as that of "twice as much," as here employed. One 
example, where the subject is the same as here — the 
restoration of the devastated church — may be cited from 
Isaiah, 61 :7, where he says : "For your share ye shall 
have double ; and for confusion, they shall rejoice in 
their portion : therefore in their land they shall possess 
the double." Here in the powerfully compacted for- 
mula: "And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he 



THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 543 

had before," the signification is identically the same as 
in the more elaborate phraseology of Isaiah, the subject 
of which it is predicated, being the same. 

The giving to Job exactly double the numbers of all 
of his former flocks and herds, as 14,000 sheep for his 
first flock of 7,000, and so on to the end of the list, is 
simply a pointed illustration of the general principle of 
the doubling of his former wealth. The No. 100, as 
applied to the years Job lives, after his restoration to 
health, and the recovery of his lost wealth, is derived 
by multiplication from the symbolic No. 5, w T hich signi- 
fies what is holy. It is therefore, emblematic of the 
State of the Church, after its purification through the 
great and manifold tribulations it had brought upon it 
by the machinations of its adversaries, personified in 
this work, as "Satan" — and is not a literal record of any 
number of calendar years which a patriarch of Uz lived, 
after his resuscitation from almost death. 

The No. 40, added here to 100, is derived by the 
affix of a cipher, from the symbolic No. 4, which is predi- 
cated of Good. Here, the 140 years to which Job's life is 
prolonged, ''after this," his recovery, signifies an incal- 
culable period of holy truth and good, which the Church 
of Christ should enjoy, after its temporary period of 
sore afflictions. 

"And saw his sons and his sons' sons, even 
four generations." 

This, in general, signifies the steadfast and large 
increase and growth of the kingdom of Christ, after its 
resurrection from what was practically its grave. The 
No. 4, of these generations of Job, is derived primarily, 
from the four quarters of the earth, and as employed 
here, signifies coming into the kingdom at last, of the 
mass of the populations of the four quarters of this 
earthly globe. The Christ, himself, speaking of the same 



544 THE NEW BOOK OF JOB 

that is signified here by the four generations of the sons 
of Job, who is himself the Christ, in a prototype, said: 
"And they shall come from the east, and from the west, 
and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit 
down in the kingdom of God." 

"So Job died, being old and full of days," 

or "Satisfied of days," as it is still better rendered. For 
this is he of whom the prophet Isaiah said, "He shall 
see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." And 
with what less than this — the salvation of the world — 
could, he be satisfied, who said that he came not to de- 
stroy the world, but to save it? This is what is pre- 
figured here in the words of the prophet, as the satisfac- 
tion of the soul of Job, with his days, and with the work 
he had accomplished and finished in them. Moreover, 
in a strictly and purely allegorical piece of work, such 
as this is, and in the form of a drama, representative 
of the leading and more important events and phe- 
nomena of the Christian Era, and with one leading and 
all-controlling character of the entire cast, there was 
no way so adapted to the representation of the close of 
the Dispensation, as this, the death of this all-dominant 
figure, called Job, when he was old and satisfied of days 
— having seen of the travail of his soul, and found the 
full satisfaction thereof, in the final and full accomplish- 
ment of his mission to the world in the final and full 
satisfaction thereof. For this, in representation of the 
Christ to come and of his satisfaction at the last, with 
the work which he should accomplish in the world, is 
what is signified in this closing act and scene of the 
world's greatest drama : So Job died being old, and 
satisfied of days. 

The End. 



•f' 



